Bodybuilding, fast cars and misogyny: Slovakia’s populist
Robert Fico returns to power
A fan of Vladimir Putin and fast cars, Robert Fico should return as prime minister of Slovakia following parliamentary elections on Saturday. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at the career of a politician who was ousted from power five years ago after a journalist was murdered for revealing government corruption, and who used populism and disinformation to rise again.
Journalists called 'prostitutes'
A survey carried out in 2022 by the Globsec think-tank showed that 54% of Slovaks are vulnerable to fake news such as the conspiracy theory that the world is governed by secret groups that want to establish a totalitarian ‘New World Order’.
The word "governed" above is excessive, and probably intentially so. "Greatly influenced" is a more accurate verb for us conspiracy theorists. To call this a conspiracy theory is to insult the half of the western world that is actually aware of what is going on. WEF, Deep State, the CIA, NATO, elements of the UN, these are all working toward the destruction of Judeo-Christian based societies around the world. They are also working to replace middle-class western society with poorly educated lower-class societies that work cheaper and are easily led by oligarchs.
Body-building and fast cars
In the streets of the capital Bratislava, the posters of Fico's party promise "stability, order and well-being", of which he claims to be the guarantor. In the new world that Fico promises, migrants and LGBT+ people – the targets of his most virulent attacks – are no longer welcome.
"I will certainly never be a supporter of them [LGBT+ people] being able to marry, as we see in other countries," he told a press conference recently, after saying adoption by same-sex couples, which is not possible in Slovakia, was a "perversion".
He is married to a lawyer with whom he has a son. According to Slovak media, the couple are separated. The politician – who likes fast cars, football and body-building – is open about his admiration for Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule, writes Slovak sociologist Michal Vasecka in his book "Fico: Obsessed with Power".
Fico recently announced that he would not authorise the arrest of Putin, who is the subject of an international warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, if he ever came to Slovakia. He also promised on the campaign trail to put an end to Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine.
"His relationship to Russia is historically determined by the socialist motto 'With the Soviet Union for Eternity'", writes Vasecka. Fico, who has spent his life navigating the political chessboard, began his career with the Communist Party when he was a lawyer.
In 1999, he left the Party of the Democratic Left, the political heir to the Communist Party, to found his own, the Smer-SD. In 2006, this party won a landslide victory in parliament, catapulting Fico to the position of prime minister two years after Slovakia joined the EU.
Fico then formed a coalition with the far-right Slovak National Party, which shared his anti-refugee rhetoric and populist leanings, and boosted his popularity during the 2007-2009 global financial crisis by refusing to impose austerity measures.
During the 2015 migration crisis in Europe, he took a stand against migrants, refusing to "create a separate Muslim community in Slovakia" and criticising the European quota programme for distributing refugees.
‘American whore’
Fico first forged a reputation on the European stage as his country’s representative to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 1994 to 2000.
Having previously hailed Slovakia's adoption of the euro as a "historic decision", he is now openly attacking the EU, NATO and war-torn Ukraine in the hopes of appealing to far-left and far-right voters.
True to form, he does this in a provocative and misogynistic manner, having made Slovak President Zuzana Caputova his scapegoat for several years. The anti-corruption lawyer, nicknamed "Slovakia’s Erin Brockovich", became the country’s president in 2019.
The French daily newspaper Le Monde described in an article one of Fico’s encounters with Caputova in vivid detail. During Labour Day celebrations in May 2022, he called Caputova an "American whore". And "the more of a whore a person is, the more famous they become", he said.
"American whore" here refers not to Caputova's pasttime, but, almost certainly, to her political flirting with America at the expense of Slovakia.
(With AFP)
Elon Musk angers German government with post
backing far-right party
Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Elon Musk is under fire after publicly backing a far-right political party in Germany, suggesting the current government should not be re-elected over its position on the current migrant crisis in Europe.
The billionaire made the comment in a post on the X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter he purchased for $44 billion last year.
"Is the German public aware of this?" Musk asks in the re-post, which was first shared by a far-right media outlet Radio Genoa and shows a video clip of German non-governmental organizations rescuing migrants from ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
"These NGOs are subsidized by the German government. Let's hope AfD wins the elections to stop this European suicide," the account continued in the original post.
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