Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Čaputová, a former civil rights lawyer, activist and standard bearer for progressive causes, has sued Robert Fico, the populist head of the country’s main opposition party, for spreading lies about her amid rising tensions before a key parliamentary election at the end of this month.
The election on 30 September pits the former prime minister Fico, whose SMER-SSD party is in the lead, according to the latest polls, against Progressive Slovakia, which is running second.
Observers said that although both could form a coalition government, a victory for Fico may lead to a sharp change in Slovakia’s foreign policy and undermine EU support for Ukraine.
Earlier this week Igor Matovič, another former prime minister, got involved in a brawl with a rival and supporters, trading punches and kicks after he crashed an outdoor campaign event, underlining the increasingly bad-tempered nature of the political struggle in Slovakia.
Čaputová, a progressive politician who won a 2019 presidential election on an anti-corruption platform, has been a frequent target for Fico’s SMER-SSD party. Fico has claimed, without offering any evidence, that she is a US puppet and stands for interests of George Soros, the US financier. Other such invented conspiracies have been repeatedly alleged during recent campaigning by SMER candidates, officials and by other rightwing parties.
“The president is aware that as a public figure she is obliged to take a higher level of criticism … but she is not obliged to put up with escalating public bullying and unwarranted accusations,” Čaputová’s office said in a statement on Wednesday. “She considers such rhetoric without a factual basis to be a deliberate abuse of freedom of speech in order to incite hatred towards a person.”
Čaputová first raised the prospect of legal action against Fico earlier this year after she said she and her family had received death threats following the false allegations against her. Her decision not to stand for a second term next year disappointed progressives in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe. Čaputová has been a strong proponent of European integration, minority rights and support for neighbouring Ukraine in its defence against Russia. She is the most popular Slovakian politician, according to polls.
Slovakia is deeply polarised over issues such as migration, minority rights and the war in Ukraine, analysts say. Fico has won support by loudly pledging to defend national interests, end military assistance for Kyiv and oppose any sanctions on Russia that could hurt Slovakia. On Wednesday, his party called on the government to start border checks to halt an increasing flow of migrants crossing from Hungary to western Europe.
Analysts say it is impossible to predict the result of the parliamentary elections with so many voters undecided, and any winner will be obliged to form a coalition to govern.
Opponents of Fico said the political veteran, who was forced to step down as prime minister after widespread protests following the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee in 2018, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Viktor Orbán, the populist leader of Hungary, who has clamped down on dissenting voices in the media, attacked the “mixing” of European and non-European races, and opposes sanctions on Russia.
Dr Ilke Toygür, senior associate of Europe, Russia and Eurasia programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies CSIS thinktank, said: “From a European Union perspective, it is very important that all member states are supportive of current economic and military aid to Ukraine. Hungary is the only vocal outlier, [but] with elections coming in Poland and Slovakia, there may be more of that kind. Slovakia is a small country of just 5.5 million but it can still have an impact on European decisions that require unanimity.”
A coalition of leftwing and centrist parties had been in power since 2020 but voters became disillusioned by incessant factional disputes and personality clashes. Chaotic management of the Covid outbreak and the cost of living crisis also undermined support. The coalition fell apart last year and a caretaker cabinet was appointed this May by the president.
The scuffle between Igor Matovič, a former prime minister, and Robert Kaliňák, an ex-interior minister, onWednesday took place after Matovič crashed a rally of Kaliňák’s SMER-SSD party.
Matovič is an anti-corruption campaigner whose Olano party won the last election but who was ultimately ousted as prime minister due to rows within ruling coalition. He has long accused SMER-SSD and its leaders, including Kaliňák and Fico, of being corrupt and sees them as his main adversaries. SMER-SSD leaders deny such accusations.
On Wednesday, Matovič drove a pickup truck painted with a slogan “we will not hand you over to the mafia” to a televised SMER-SSD news conference and, through mounted loudspeakers, accused Kaliňák of poor immigration policies when he was interior minister in Fico’s cabinets. Matovič kicked at Kaliňák in video footage, while another SMER-SSD member punched Matovič before police intervened to separate the two sides. Police said an investigation was under way.
