The entire disinformation campaign and conspiratorial games within the investigative bodies have been running practically since the fall of the Fico government and after about three years have produced the desired results for the perpetrators. The public strongly doubted the objectivity of the investigation, fans of the Smer-SD party and right-wing extremism did not even trust the court verdicts and even considered the whole system criminal. The conspirators succeeded in combining the distrust in institutions from the period of the covid pandemic with the distrust in the rule of law. Along with press statements that amnesty would be granted for offences related to violations of anti-epidemic measures, there were open plans by the Direction-SD and its partners to cancel investigations and even acquit in cases of economic crime.
After Matović’s government and the virtually identical government of Heger, the unsustainable chaotic form of government led to their downfall and the appointment of a temporary bureaucratic government, the composition of which was prepared primarily by President Zuzana Čaputová. The cabinet of the economist Ľudovít Ódor brought about several remedial measures that ensured compliance with European rules and maintained the economic stability of the state. However, the government was short-lived and had significantly limited powers. It was thus unable to intervene properly in the fight for the rule of law and merely sailed on in the status quo until the elections in autumn 2023.
Although the Democrats tried to be optimistic, a sober look at the activity of the Direction-SD and the anti-system parties and a look at the preference polls showed that there was a real danger of the old structures returning. It must be added, however, that the situation was worse than in 2018. Smer-SD was no longer hiding behind anything. It nominated figures suspected of committing criminal acts to head the candidate list. Most of the top ten of the candidate list were accused persons. And Robert Fico publicly defended criminals, including Marian Kočner, on a daily basis. If he had done so two or three years ago, the majority of the public would have opposed him. But now it has worked. The fans of the anti-system forces were extremely mobilised and the democratic camp was tired, apathetic and disillusioned by the chaotic rule of the Matovic ensemble.
Though close, it turned out as the Democratic spectrum feared. Unhealthy optimism about the growth of Progressive Slovakia poured ice water over the election result, where Smer-SD scored 22.94 percent. No miracle, but with Progressive Slovakia recording a result of 17.96 percent and two other (really only two) non-antisystem parties recording a result that only narrowly put them in parliament, it was clear who would dictate the pace of post-election negotiations.
Toxic optimists on the Democratic spectrum were cruelly quick to fall for another falsely created myth where the wish was the father of the idea. Within days, Peter Pellegrini’s Voice-SD party was communicating to enter government with Smer-SD. Here we must briefly recall the story of the political project Voice-SD. The party was founded just after the murder of Ján Kuciak, when Smer-SD was experiencing a brutal drop in trust. The party wanted to present itself as a social democratic alternative to Smer-SD with a more respectable face and to distance itself from the corrupt Fico system. The problem was that the party was mostly made up of long-time Směr-SD members, including the leadership. And its themes were not much different from the Smer-SD either. Still, it was enough – Směr-SD voters who liked the utopian social democratic rhetoric without results, but had a problem with how far corruption at the top had reached, switched to Hlas-SD. Pellegrini, a long-time highly popular politician whose appearance and demeanour – dancing with pensioners in costumes, photographs from his garden or with his dog – has played a big role in this.
Pellegrini, however, was there for everything alongside Fico – he was his joker, whom Fico put in office after serious scandals of his predecessors were revealed. He was therefore minister of education, finance, health, interior and informatisation. At the same time, he himself carried out suspicious activities while in office.
It was under his leadership, for example, that massive investments were made in digitalisation, which involved massive tunnelling, which has now been proven in court. In addition, the former head of the tax administration, František Imrecze, and businessman Michal Suchoba have testified that Pellegrini took a bribe of 150,000 euros while still a deputy at the Finance Ministry.
Another prominent member of the leadership of the Voice of the Czech Republic, Peter Žiga, is a former minister of the economy and the environment. He is accused on the basis of testimony that he had bribed to stop an investigation into the involvement of his cousin’s son Stefan Žiga in a carousel scam. His logging company, Taper, has been suspected of the same practices and violating environmental laws in the past.
Denisa Saková, another member of the leadership of the Voice of the Czech Republic, was for a long time deputy minister of the Interior Ministry under Fico and de facto right-hand woman to Robert Kaliňák. Another – Erik Tomáš – was a long-time advisor to Robert Fico. Richard Raši, the former Minister of Health, Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation, is again connected to the Eastern Slovakia health octopus and also during his term of office, money for digitisation was stolen. And so we could go on.
The naivety and optimism of the democratic part of the electoral spectrum spoke of the possibility that after the elections the Voice-SD would reject the offer of the Direction-SD and form a government with Progressive Slovakia. It was a well-played game – for about two years Hlas-SD was verbally acting in the sense that it could not imagine cooperation with Smer-SD. A few weeks before the elections, Pellegrini himself claimed this. After the elections, however, within days he rejected Progressive Slovakia’s offer to become prime minister and reunited with Smer-SD, which added the Slovak National Party to the party.
So the game will be released in autumn 2023. In a composition very similar to that of Smer-SD before the fallout from Kuciak’s murder, Smer-SD and Hlas-SD together won about 38 percent, similar to the situation in 2012, when Smer-SD won 44 percent and formed a one-colour government. Now, however, this group of MPs had to find a partner, which was the Slovak National Party, whose roster of a mix of Facebook disinformers and anti-system personalities narrowly squeaked into parliament with 5.62 percent of the vote.
Together, the majority of the coalition after 2023 is 79 MPs, which is only a narrow majority in the Slovak parliament with 150 representatives. Despite this, something has been set in motion in Slovakia that is unprecedented in the European Union. Coalition MPs vote in all circumstances, in several cases with imported, seriously ill MPs, as one man to reverse democratic development and build a system with authoritarian elements.
A return to the old ways
The optimists said that Fico would “only” solve his own problems with the law and those of his allies when he returned to power. They told themselves that spreading disinformation and questioning state institutions were only parts of a tough pre-election fight. They promised themselves that the pro-Russian rhetoric, which was unprecedented in the EU area, was only an effort to secure the votes of the supporters of the anti-system parties. They believed that Fico would need to belong to the European elite and draw on European subsidies, and that he would stop his anti-Brussels campaign because of this. And they hoped that no matter how massive the revanche, Robert Fico realises that democracy is the right system for a free and, if possible, happy life for all citizens, including himself.
Unfortunately, everything was quickly disproved. From the very first days, it was clear from rhetoric and actions that Fico was not working for a return to power just for the sake of a single term in order to protect himself from justice. The carefully prepared plan includes a much broader and more quickly applied system than the black scenarios envisaged. In just a few months, the government has dismantled several important institutions, dismantled key checks and balances, and legislated to make Slovakia a dream eldorado for diverse forms of crime. According to many, this is a return to the days of Mečiarism; according to others, it is even worse at the time of writing. At this time, we do not yet know where, or if, Fico’s roll will stop. Therefore, we can only summarise what he has managed to undo in just a few months.
Disinformation
A key part of the Direction’s electoral success was based on misinformation. Questioning the covid pandemic, questioning the police, the courts, the war in Ukraine, the western direction of Slovakia, but also spreading petty conspiracies on the simplest and most widespread disinformation topics garnered hundreds of thousands of votes.
After its election, however, the government understood that without the votes of the disinformers, public support would not be sufficient for its stability. It also needed to drown out information about the constant encroachments on the rule of law and other problems related mainly to the economic struggles of the state.
That is also why it has continued its disinformation campaigns with the same fervor and cadence. Every day and through many mouths, she repeated the disinformation from the election campaign and added new ones.
It repeated misinformation about the death of Police President Lučanský, allegedly purposeful criminal proceedings, the conspiracy of progressive politicians with Brussels and journalists, and the fact that the previous government chose who to indict in consultations with the police leadership.
From a different barrel are the really toxic and stupid messages that are repeated – yes, also from the mouths of the Prime Minister and ministers – about bears or poisoned wheat.
Perhaps most damaging, however, is the constant spread of hatred against the West, on all levels, from the dissemination of broader narratives to the usual blaming of Brussels and Washington for everything negative in the state to obscure reports that Brussels is protecting bears so that they can contribute to the extermination of Slavic peoples. Really…, members of the government say this too.
The government’s approach to President Zuzana Čaputová deserves a special chapter. This book is not extensive enough for that, but it must be said that she is almost daily referred to as an agent of the United States. At rallies, even the Direction-SD, including Fico, has roused the audience to shout “She’s an American whore” in unison and repeatedly, all while grinning cutely. The result was that Čaputová, after repeated attacks – even of a physical nature – on her family, gave up another run for the post of head of state. Everything was only crowned by the attack of a deranged woman who jumped the fence of the president’s house and tried to get to the “Jewish-American” monster to put an end to it.
Similar attacks are on the rise in Slovakia. Almost every week, members of the government name specific politicians, journalists, students or civic activists who, in their opinion, are members of the great Western conspiracy against them, and therefore the state, and therefore normal life, and therefore the Slavs. The government had in its ranks forged extremists with hundreds of thousands of extremist supporters. The government absolutely legitimized them. And on more than one occasion, it provided information to an excited crowd about how to find these evil conspirators, where they lived, or where their families were.
When an attack occurs, such as the murder of two people because of their sexual orientation by the son of a member of the leadership of the Fatherland movement, Štefan Harabin, as was the case in Bratislava’s Zámocká Street, the members of the garrison merely state that they are not responsible for the actions of fools. And it does not change the fact that they continue to fraternize publicly with the father of the murderer and nominate Štefan Harabin for important positions, such as the Judicial Council.
From a marketing point of view, the Fico government number four has clearly assessed that its target group is the anti-system movement, and therefore it is necessary to make the anti-system mainstream. From the very first days of the ruling coalition, it has restricted journalists’ access to parliamentary proceedings. It allowed live coverage only from a small library, where head-to-head staffs were pressed by mutual agreement so that at least someone could broadcast.
Government officials first stopped inviting journalists from selected media outlets to party press conferences and then restricted the possibility of asking questions of ministers at government press conferences. In turn, priority access and the ability to ask questions was given to disinformation media, including those that have been proven to be financed by Russian intelligence. The crown jewel of all this was the interior minister who gave a lengthy interview to Daniel Bombic, a conspirator and right-wing extremist repeatedly found guilty of violent crimes and who has three arrest warrants for extremism, cyberbullying and publishing sensitive personal data. At a time when Slovakia is officially asking the United Kingdom, where Bombic lives, to extradite him, the interior minister had a long conversation with him that has become a hit on all disinformation channels. Bombic, who is fond of posting his anti-Semitic slogans and hailing on videos, then triumphantly announced that this was the beginning of the clearing of his name.
Thanks to the help of pro-government disinformation media, the names, addresses and phone numbers of journalists from traditional media appear repeatedly on social networks. Nor does a week go by when government officials, including Fico, dare to name specific journalists who they believe are responsible for everything negative that is being said in the state.
The finale and punctuation of the whole media coup was the effort to abolish public television, which is to be replaced by state television with direct influence of government politicians on the content of its broadcasts. And the fourth government of Robert Fico took six months to do all this.
Slovak Information Service
For any grand plans in relation to conspiracy games within the investigative forces, the cooperation of the government and the intelligence services is necessary. Fico’s cabinet was also aware of this. The Slovak Information Service has not had a good reputation for a long time. Let us recall that during the reign of Vladimir Mečiar it was involved not only in conspiracy games in favour of his HZDS party, but also in economic crime and the organisation of murders. By the time Fico was appointed prime minister for the fourth time, both previous heads of the service had been indicted.
It was therefore logical and legitimate to expect the government to nominate its own head of the secret service, which in the meantime had arranged the escape of key figures in the police war to Bosnia and Herzegovina and attempted to discredit witnesses in sensitive cases with fabricated accusations. After 2023, there was what was to be expected, namely a personnel nomination to head the service that left no one in any doubt about what Robert Fico and his system were up to.
First rhetorically, then in reality, he began to promote Tibor Gašpar to the head of the service, who is discussed in several places in the History of Corruption. The nomination was opposed by President Zuzana Čaputová, who diplomatically expressed that she saw no reason to rush to approve it. The coalition responded to this, in addition to the usual jihad against the president, by changing the law to allow the deputy director of the service, whom the government can appoint without the president’s approval, to exercise de facto powers. It soon appointed Pavel Gašpar – the son of Tibor Gašpar – to this post.
At the time of writing, 36-year-old Pavol Gašpar, who has his entire forearm adorned with a tattoo of his father and cannot explain where he got the money to buy a series of luxury properties despite his mediocre career as a lawyer, was being promoted to SIS director. With the election of Peter Pellegrini as President, who has said he has no problem with it, the only thing left to do is to wait for the inauguration.
