2024-04-09 22:04:44
Peter Pellegrini will replace Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová in mid-June. Slovak media estimate that the politician, who emerged from the government coalition, can free Prime Minister Robert Fico’s hands. He will then be able to start an even more intense fight with the media, non-profits and try to control the justice system. Fico himself considers Pellegrini’s victory as a confirmation that Slovaks agree with his rule.
“The majority of Slovaks wish to continue our style of governance and the steps we have in the program statement. The referendum on the government went well. We are destined to govern until 2027,” Prime Minister Robert Fico declared in Peter Pellegrini’s staff, when it was already clear that the current boss parliament will become the new Slovak president.
Pellegrini defeated diplomat Ivan Korčok in the election by more than six percentage points. According to Fico, people in Slovakia have shown that they recognize the threat to the country from the liberal media, activists and non-governmental organizations if Korčok were to win.
In half a year, the Slovak cabinet adopted controversial changes to the criminal code, abolished the body overseeing the investigation of cases from Fico Smér’s previous rule, cut off some non-profit organizations from state support and began an attempt to gain more power over the public media. In addition to Fico’s party, the government consists of Pellegrini’s Hlas and the Slovak National Party.
Slovak journalists and experts estimate that Fico and his ally Pellegrini will take even more radical steps in the presidential palace, because nothing will stand in his way. The outcome of the presidential election gives him potential legitimacy from voters to do so.
“They want the government to take revenge on the big cities, Bratislava, supposed liberals, progressives and moderate conservatives. They are satisfied that it accepts problematic laws that Brussels also reminds,” sociologist Michal Vašečka told Slovak Daily N.
On Monday, two days after the presidential election, Prime Minister Fico attacked two judges of the Supreme Court in connection with their decisions in politically sensitive cases. He spoke in front of the press in favor of both being stripped of their robes. He claimed that their senate was involved in “dirty work” against the former opposition, which at the time was the Direction.
Pellegrini himself indicated at the end of the election night that he would not put obstacles in the way of the government. “If he fulfills his program statement, he does not have to worry that the presidential palace will become an opposition power-political center that would enjoy the failure of the coalition,” he declared in a post-election speech alongside Robert Fico.
According to the Slovak media, the Constitutional Court will also face pressure. The Slovak president can dismiss and appoint its chairman. After the Constitutional Tribunal decided in February to suspend part of the government’s amendment to the criminal law, Robert Fico attacked its chairman, Ivan Fiačan. He also called on him to resign.
Pellegrini also paves the way for the appointment of Pavel Gašpar as the director of the secret service SIS, writes the daily SME. The current president, Zuzana Čaputová, has repeatedly admitted that she will leave the task to her successor.
The Slovak opposition is criticizing the nomination of a man who is the son of the prosecuted former police chief and today MP for Direction Tibor Gašpar. According to her, he does not meet the professional criteria and at the head of SIS he would be the extended hand of Prime Minister Fico. Even before the elections, Pellegrini claimed that he would additionally appoint Gašpar as president.
Jakub Filo, a journalist from the Slovakian newspaper SME, evaluated the results of the presidential election for Aktuálně.cz, saying that Fico consolidated power. “His government has a stable majority of 79 votes out of 150 in the parliament, and from June 15 it will also control the presidential palace, although Pellegrini will try to claim that he is non-partisan. It will allow them to subvert democracy and the rule of law even more,” he says.
In the commentary, the newspaper N writes, among other things, that “Pellegrini will be the head of state only in pictures in state offices and schools. The real president will be Fico, because he is the undisputed head of the coalition group.”
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Spotlight Aktuálně.cz – Milan Kňažko | Video: The Spotlight Team