The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday, January 17th, condemning Slovakia, in yet another move by the federalist elite in Brussels to attack anti-globalist, sovereigntist governments in Central Europe.
With 496 votes for, 70 against and 64 abstentions, the left-liberal majority of the European Parliament adopted a resolution questioning Slovakia’s ability to fight corruption and protect the EU budget should the reform of the criminal code proposed by the new administration of Robert Fico be adopted.
The latest resolution condemning Slovakia stems from political bias while going through the motions of concern for ‘rule-of-law.’
Fico’s fourth tenure as prime minister began in October, and his nationalist government, led by his party Smer, promised to defend national interests and stop EU interference in Slovakia’s domestic affairs. Fico’s sovereigntist approach, criticism of EU sanctions against Russia, and rejection of military aid to Ukraine, place him on the same platform as Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán—also vilified by EU institutions for his conservative stance on issues like Ukraine, migration, gender ideology, and federalist plans to take away even more competences from member states.
The two leaders are close allies. After they met in Budapest on Tuesday, Viktor Orbán stated that they both cherish national sovereignty and that the two countries’ interests coincide in “99 percent” of the cases.
Before long, EU institutions went after Fico’s government, with its changes to the criminal code drawing the ire of the leftist elite in Brussels under a ‘rule-of-law’ pretext.
According to Slovakian government proposals, a new law would reduce sentences for financial crimes and abolish the special prosecutor’s office. This authority was established by the previous government to investigate organized crime and corruption cases, but has pursued officials, police officers, judges, prosecutors, politicians, and businesspeople linked to Smer, PM Fico’s party. Fico has accused the authority of political bias.
The special prosecutor’s office was led by Daniel Lipšic—Minister of Justice and Minister of Home Affairs Minister in previous, non-Fico governments—who had never worked as a prosecutor prior to being appointed head of the office. Its dissolution is a domestic matter, not a European one, writes the Hungarian-language Slovakian publication, Ma7. (Similar authorities don’t even exist in most other EU member states.) As Hungarian Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said during the European Parliament debate on Slovakia on December 13th:
The criminal law reform presented by the new Slovak government is an internal affair. It should be debated, thoroughly, in Slovakia. The issue has nothing to do on the agenda of the European Parliament. A few months ago Slovakia made a clear decision at the elections: after several years of political instability they elected a new government to take power. Whether the current majority of this house likes this result or not, is completely irrelevant. This house should not be used to take revenge for an election defeat.
Smer MEP Katarína Roth Neveďalová also derided her political opponents, saying that nobody had a problem “with the special prosecutor’s office when it was being used for political purges.”
EU scrutiny of Smer contrasts with the recent sympathetic treatment of the new leftist-centrist Polish government, which led an aggressive takeover of the country’s public broadcaster, Such hypocrisy fuelled a resolution adopted by the European Parliament, which “notes with concern the planned restructuring of Radio and Television of Slovakia, the country’s main public broadcaster.” The same text inexplicably criticizes the Slovak Prime Minister for resorting “to divisive language in order to polarize Slovak society.”
As with Hungary and the previous conservative government of Poland, the usual suspects are quick to condemn Slovakia. The debate in December saw German Green MEP Daniel Freund say Fico is “using the same playbook” as Orbán, while Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ’t Veld bizarrely claim that the results of the September elections in Slovakia—which brought a comfortable majority for Fico and his sovereigntist allies—“in no-way indicate that people want to go back” to the days of the previous Fico governments.
But it is not just the European Parliament that is anxious about the changes in Slovakia. European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said the Commission, which has frozen other countries’ funding in similar cases, will take action against Slovakia if it enacts changes to criminal laws that violate European Union laws.
The proposed legal reform has yet to be voted on by the Slovakian parliament, but opposition parties have already organized four anti-government demonstrations, with thousands of their supporters taking to the streets with EU support. They are planning to protest again on Thursday, January 18th. It’s likely the double standards of the EU’s rule-of-law pretensions will spur them on.
