After Hungary and Poland, it is the eurosceptic, anti-globalist government of Slovakia that is being singled out by European institutions for allegedly violating the ‘rule of law.’ According to Slovakian media reports, the European Commission has threatened the Robert Fico-led nationalist government with sanctions for modifying the country’s criminal code.
Fico returned to power for the fourth time in October last year after his left-wing nationalist party Smer won the September parliamentary elections on an anti-migration and sovereigntist platform. His criticism of EU and U.S. meddling in Slovakia’s domestic affairs, coupled with his promise to stop delivering military aid to Ukraine, has angered the EU elites. The European Parliament adopted a resolution one month ago, condemning Slovakia, questioning its ability to fight corruption and protect the EU budget.
One of the Fico-led government’s first actions was to put forward a law in parliament—adopted last week—that will abolish the Special Prosecutor’s Office, an authority Fico accuses of having been used by the previous centre-right-liberal government to purge opposition figures with corruption charges. Fico himself was charged two years ago with creating a criminal group, but the parties in government couldn’t garner enough votes in parliament to strip him of his legal immunity.
The new law also proposes to reduce sentences, for example for misuse of money from EU funds, corruption, tax fraud, theft, or manipulation of public tenders. Sentences for many crimes would be changed to suspended sentences or home detention. The current Europhile opposition—which has organised protests in the past weeks against the government—sees the changes as an attempt by Fico to protect his political and business allies from investigations. A number of people linked to the prime minister’s party currently face prosecution in corruption scandals. The cases investigated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office will be handed over to other prosecutors.
President Zuzana Čaputová, an ally of the liberal opposition Progressive Slovakia party, has said she would veto the bill, and send it to the Constitutional Court for review if her veto would be overruled by the governing majority.
The controversial law was passed by the Slovakian parliament in line with the national constitution—yet, the European Commission—the ‘guardian of the EU treaties’—has assumed the supra-national authority to interfere in Slovak affairs under the guise of ‘rule of law,’ calling for the government not to fast-track the changes. According to Slovakian media, the Commission has already sent two letters to Bratislava, warning it was ready to ‘defend the EU’s interests’ and take action against Slovakia if it assesses that the judicial changes have an impact on aspects of European law and the EU’s financial interests.
Sanctions against Slovakia could include the freezing of EU funds, a similar approach taken with the current conservative leadership of Hungary and the previous conservative government of Poland, who have enraged the Brussels elite with their hard anti-immigration and anti-federalist stance. The first sign of revenge against Bratislava seems to be the announcement by the Commission on February 6th to suspend the assessment of a request by Slovakia for €900 million worth of EU funds.
EU scrutiny of Fico’s Smer government contrasts with the recent sympathetic treatment of the new leftist-centrist Polish government, which led an aggressive takeover of the country’s public broadcaster, and barred two opposition MPs from entering parliament, but has not been condemned for its actions. Whereas the previous conservative government faced various sanctions on the pretext of ‘rule-of-law violations,’ its governing successor in parliament now seems primed to receive EU funding.
Alongside Slovakia, the centre-right government of Greece is also being targeted by EU institutions. The European Parliament recently condemned Greece for a myriad of alleged issues they say are threatening the rule of law, and MEPs are now demanding that the European Commission open an infringement procedure (Article 7) against Greece over the alleged mistreatment of illegal migrants and asylum-seekers. The New Democracy party has been in power since 2019 and is still easily the most popular party in Greece, due to its success in reviving the economy and lowering the number of migrants arriving at its shores.
