*This article was written on 13 May, two days before the assassination attempt which is briefly addressed at the conclusion of this piece.
Brussels has another dissident nation on its hands. On the one hand Slovakia is part of the Visegrad Four (V4), a bloc which has long resisted the EU bureaucracy. But this bloc has been fragmented if not shattered by the war in Ukraine. Poland and the Czech Republic are 'all in' with the EU and NATO, while Hungary and now Slovakia dissent. As such the foreign policy of the bloc is at odds with itself.
The defeat of the PiS in Poland marks another EU victory while Hungary is becoming something of an inspiration for a new EU-dissident bloc. In order to keep Italy and its new Right-wing government on board, Brussels has been forced to compromise. A couple of years ago France's Macron seemed to be the most powerful leader in Europe and yet within the EU itself, the spotlight has been stolen by Meloni who (having tacked a little toward the centre) seems to be almost setting the agenda - even while she continues to meet with and collaborate with the far-right in both Europe and the United States.
Fico seeks to nationalise Slovak media. In a profit-driven market like the US, this could be a good thing. In the UK, there's a mix of outlets, some overtly partisan and yet tempered by the ostensible neutrality of the BBC. It is of course not exactly neutral even if it is officially outside government control. The same is true of the PBS/NPR networks in the United States.
When a Right-wing politician seeks to nationalise media, that signals nothing about objectivity or fairness in reporting. It's all about control.
What Fico advocates exceeds what we see with PBS. He wants to make the administrators political appointees - which obviously belies his supposed concerns for objectivity and neutrality.
The BBC's chair is nominated by the UK's culture secretary and yet there is no direct oversight. Fico on the contrary is looking for explicitly partisan news coverage and has already cut off mainstream outlets from access to his administration. This is taking things beyond the GOP/FOX model in the United States. It would be akin to replacing PBS with FOX and then working to exclude and shut down all rival networks.
It's definitely an authoritarian move and one more plausible in a small country like Slovakia with its population of just over 5 million - about the size of metro Philadelphia or Washington DC.
You can be sure Fico will be lauded in Right-wing circles, though he remains controversial as he seems an opportunist as opposed to someone principled, and there's a nasty even thuggish streak to him - more akin to Trump than even the likes of Orban or Italy's Matteo Salvini.
The following European Conservative article hashes out some of the problems with Fico when viewed from the standpoint of Christian politicking which in Slovakia is (thanks to the Counter-Reformation) overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.
Since I wrote this several days ago, Fico has been the subject of assassination attempt. It's not clear yet as to whether this was in protest to his domestic policies or connected (perhaps) with his Ukraine stance. Whether he survives or dies, this incident will surely be used by the Right in both Europe and America as a rallying cry. If Fico survives and remains viable, he may ride the political wave and use this event to ram through his agenda.
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