The Slovak Nationalist Party and Republika, both coming from a Slovak neo-Nazi movement, are now trying to sanitise their image and may have a shot at forming a government with poll leader Smer.
After the snap elections on 30 September, Slovakia could have two far-right parties in its government. Smer, which leads the polls and formally belongs to the left-wing Party of European Socialists but recently moved right, is open to a coalition with Republika and Slovak Nationalist Party (SNS).
According to a June poll, the parties would have enough parliamentary seats if runner-up and Smer defector Hlas joined them. “If a government of Smer, Hlas and SNS is not formed, Slovakia will collapse into Brussels hell,” said SNS leader Andrej Danko.
Hlas has so far refused to cooperate with extremist parties. A failure of small parties hovering around 5% to reach parliament could also rearrange the cards, as could the reluctance of some people to admit to supporting far-right parties in polls.
Both Republika and SNS have members with connections to ĽSNS party, whose leader was convicted last year for sympathising with the Nazi movement. They are trying to clean up their image by supporting the historic Slovak anti-fascist movement, but still run on far-right platforms, spread hate against the LGBTI+ community and want to stop aid to Ukraine.
Smer’s membership in PES was already paused in 2006 after it formed a government with nationalist SNS. Today’s SNS is even more extremist after joining ranks with Tomáš Taraba and his LIFE party.
Taraba, a former ĽSNS member, authored a bill to ban rainbow flags on public buildings. He also alluded to Ukraine lying about Russian massacres of its civilians. In April, former PM Robert Fico (Smer) wished SNS success after joining LIFE and said it would play an “important part” in post-election Slovakia.
Smer also faces renewed calls to be excluded from PES after he said he was open to cooperating with Republika. Polling at 9%, it is led by ĽSNS defector and unaligned MEP Milan Uhrík, who famously refused to condemn the deportations of Jews during World War II because of “not being a historian”.
Meanwhile, another Republika candidate has refused to condemn Adolf Hitler in eight successive interview questions.
The PES presidency has expressed “concern” regarding Smer’s positions and underlined that its member parties must reject acts of aggression and clearly support progressive values.
However, Smer itself is on a clear rightward trajectory, calling trans people “sick”, celebrating Russia Day at the Russian embassy last month and recording a podcast with a self-proclaimed white nationalist who called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an anti-gay slur and Putin, a “great strategist”.
(Barbara Zmušková | EURACTIV.sk)
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