Last Week: What will a Trump presidency look like? Slovakia offers some hints
The proposed Covid amnesty is a case in point.
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. The Slovak experience may offer some hints of what to expect from the second Trump presidency.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
The similarities between Trump and Fico
By the time you are reading this, you have very likely grown sick and tired of post-US-election commentaries welcoming you to the “strongmen’s world”, as Donald Trump is set to assume the position once dubbed “leader of the free world”. For those of us who have lived in Slovakia this past year, much of what Trump is likely to do as America’s 47th president is not going to come as a surprise.
After the election results came in last Wednesday, government politicians left no doubt that the Fico-led coalition sees its own image reflected in the criminally convicted president-elect.
“He represents a big story of a man who needed to overcome many obstacles, including an attempt on his life,” interim Speaker of Parliament Speaker Peter Žiga, a former Smer government minister who is now one of the faces of the Hlas party, wrote after having congratulated Trump on his election victory and before expressing the belief that the good relations between Slovakia and the US will continue.
An assassination attempt is not the only thing Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and president-elect Trump have in common. They both based their campaign on framing the criminal cases against them as witch-hunts. They have both supported the idea of “peace” in Ukraine that involves Slovakia’s giving up large chunks of its territory to the Russian aggressor. They both have no scruples about using disinformation if it serves their political aims, and they are both willing to hand government positions to conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.
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