Pro-Russian Slovak Politicians Meet with Hungarian Foreign Minister

Slo­va­kian media is report­ing on meet­ings between the Hun­gar­i­an For­eign Min­is­ter which includ­ed the Slo­vak oppo­si­tion leader, Robert Fico (Smer) and Andrej Danko, Chair­man of the Slo­vak Nation­al Par­ty. Accord­ing to the Slo­vak Spec­ta­tor report, both Fico and Danko are strong­ly pro-Russian:

Decem­ber 6, 2022 The Slo­vak oppo­si­tion leader, Robert Fico (Smer), met with Hun­gar­i­an For­eign Min­is­ter Péter Szi­jjártó on Tues­day in Bratisla­va, where the Hun­gar­i­an offi­cial also held an offi­cial meet­ing with his coun­ter­parts from Slo­va­kia, Poland and the Czech Repub­lic. Szi­jjártó used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet not only with Fico, but also Finance Min­is­ter Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) and for­mer speak­er Andrej Danko (SNS). Matovič recent­ly con­sid­ered going against the EU’s plan to block sanc­tions against Hun­gary. More­over, Fico and Danko, hold strong pro-Russ­ian views, some­thing that res­onates with the Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment. Szi­jjártó said at a press con­fer­ence that Fico deserves the respect of Hun­gar­i­ans and Hun­gary. He added that when Fico was prime min­is­ter, Slo­vak-Hun­gar­i­an coop­er­a­tion reached anoth­er lev­el. Fico crit­i­cised anti-Russ­ian sanc­tions and added that he would sus­pend the deliv­ery of weapons to Ukraine if his par­ty were to form anoth­er gov­ern­ment. Ukraine is one of the most cor­rupt coun­tries in the world, Fico also uttered. While the Hun­gar­i­an min­is­ter sees no prob­lem in meet­ing with rul­ing or oppo­si­tion politi­cians, a Hun­gar­i­an minor­i­ty polit­i­cal par­ty slammed Szi­jjártó for meet­ing with Fico.

Read the rest here.

Andrej Danko is a Slo­vak politi­cian who was the Speak­er of the Nation­al Coun­cil from 2016 to 2020 and Chair­man of the Slo­vak Nation­al Par­ty (SNP) since 2012. The SNP has been described as based on a “blend of nation­al­ist and pop­ulist appeals” and has been in and out of the par­lia­ment over the past three decades. In 2018, Danko was embroiled in con­tro­ver­sy over accu­sa­tions he had pla­gia­rized his doc­tor­al the­ses. UK media report­ed that Danko’s blog was closed down in March 2022 for spread­ing dis­in­for­ma­tion about Russia’s aggres­sion against Ukraine.

Euro­pean media had report­ed last March that Fico was also accused of spread­ing Krem­lin pro­pa­gan­da and that his future plans includes coop­er­a­tion with the SNP:

March 8, 2022 The Par­ty of Euro­pean Social­ists has stood by For­mer Slo­vak prime min­is­ter and Smer par­ty leader Robert Fico after he announced he would pur­sue a coali­tion with the far-right Repub­li­ka move­ment and likened NATO sol­diers to Nazi troops. Euro­pean social­ists face repeat­ed calls to take action against their Slo­vak mem­ber par­ty Smer-SD. In an open let­ter, Slo­vak MEPs point out that its leader Robert Fico “assists the spread of Krem­lin pro­pa­gan­da”. Fico has recent­ly likened the arrival of NATO sol­diers in Slo­va­kia to “wel­com­ing of the Wehrma­cht” and described the war as “a con­flict between the Unit­ed States and Rus­sia”. Fico has also pub­licly admit­ted to seek­ing a coali­tion with the extreme far-right. “We have absolute­ly no prob­lem with them,” said Fico of the move­ment Repub­li­ka, led by a non-attached MEP Milan Uhrík, who refused to con­demn the Holo­caust on account of “not being a his­to­ri­an” and whose speech on the Ukrain­ian war was booed in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. Smer-SD was the first par­ty to have their Par­ty of Euro­pean Social­ists mem­ber­ship sus­pend­ed for ten months in 2006 in response to their gov­ern­ing coali­tion with the Slo­vak Nation­al Par­ty, with whom they also want to coop­er­ate after the next election.

Read the rest here.

In Feb­ru­ary 2022. Slo­vak media report­ed on the dis­nfor­ma­tion cam­paign Rus­sia has led in East­ern Europe:

The vot­ers have been sub­ject­ed to eight-years-long mas­sive dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign that Rus­sia has been lead­ing against NATO and the EU, spend­ing hun­dreds of mil­lions of euros every year on it. Although it is also aimed at peo­ple in Czechia, Hun­gary or the Balka­ns, the cam­paign seems to have the strongest effect on peo­ple in Slo­va­kia. Last year, Glob­sec put Slo­va­kia in the group of the most pro-Russ­ian states in cen­tral and east­ern Europe, the so-called bear huggers.

Read the rest here (sub­scrip­tion required.

The Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance (GNCA) is described in a GIOR report as follows:

Russ­ian Pres­i­dent PUTIN has expressed an inter­est in Rus­sia becom­ing the ide­o­log­i­cal cen­ter of a new glob­al con­ser­v­a­tive alliance, and Euro­pean far-right lead­ers have tak­en pro-Russ­ian posi­tions based on a sim­i­lar ide­ol­o­gy. Hun­gary is at the cen­ter of a devel­op­ing alliance between Euro­pean far-right nation­al­ists and Amer­i­can con­ser­v­a­tives that Rus­sia could poten­tial­ly exploit for use in infor­ma­tion war­fare. This alliance oper­ates under the rubric of “Nation­al Con­ser­vatism,” cen­tered on nation­al sov­er­eign­ty, cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty, and oppo­si­tion to glob­al insti­tu­tions and rep­re­sent­ing a poten­tial­ly rad­i­cal change for the US con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment away from long-held Rea­gan-era philosophies.

Read the full report here.

Oppo­si­tion to “gen­der ide­ol­o­gy” is a cen­tral issue for the GNCA, and GIOR has also report­ed on the role played by the Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium (MCC), a Hun­gar­i­an edu­ca­tion facil­i­ty sup­port­ed by the Orban gov­ern­ment, in dis­sem­i­nat­ing Russ­ian-style anti-LGBTQ pro­pa­gan­da. In 2019, Balkan media report­ed that the Slo­vak Nation­al Par­ty has long dis­missed LGBT rights as “gen­der ide­ol­o­gy” import­ed from the deca­dent West. Accord­ing to the Balkan Insight report:

Slo­vak soci­ety is divid­ed when it comes to equal­i­ty issues. On the one hand, oppo­si­tion to LGBT rights is a ral­ly­ing call for pop­ulists, con­ser­v­a­tives, the Catholic Church and extrem­ists. Par­ties such as the SNS or the far-right People’s Par­ty Our Slo­va­kia put anti-LGBT slo­gans on bill­boards and in ads, while for­mer Slo­vak Prime Min­is­ter Robert Fico, who is still leader of the rul­ing SMER-SD par­ty, often pits LGBT rights against “tra­di­tion­al” fam­i­ly val­ues, espe­cial­ly before elec­tions. Such voic­es say that same-sex part­ner­ships threat­en the insti­tu­tion of mar­riage, which is defined in the Slo­vak con­sti­tu­tion as “an act between one man and one woman”. Mean­while, cyber­space is awash with anti-LGBT pro­pa­gan­da and hate speech, boost­ed by dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns from pro-Russ­ian media net­works, experts say.

Read the rest here.

 

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