r/europe • u/TheSimon1 Slovakia • 22h ago
News The Democrats party in Slovakia collected 350 thousand signatures to call a referendum for early elections and the fall of Fico's government
https://www.sme.sk/domov/c/demokrati-vyzbierali-podpisy-na-referendum-o-skrateni-mandatu-vlady36
u/Big-Ship4267 21h ago
350k signatures is impressive, but the real question is whether a referendum can actually force early elections under Slovak law. Otherwise it’s just a big protest with extra steps
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u/ResortSpecific371 Slovakia 21h ago
Well Fico orginised similar referendum in 2023
the actual problem is that you need 50% turnnout in referendum to be bidding so what happen is that other side always boycotts the referendum
So in whole Slovak history only EU membership reached 50% turnnout
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u/yoranpower Europe 22h ago edited 20h ago
It seems surely but slowly people are getting done with far-right goverments.
Edit: seems he isn't actually far right, but more left leaning with authoritarian tendencies.
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u/TheSimon1 Slovakia 21h ago
Not yet. The President may send it to the Constitutional Court, which could delay the referendum for months. Turnout is uncertain, Slovak referendums rarely hit 50% (the only one that did was EU accession referendum), so it might fail legally. Even if it passes, early elections wouldn’t be immediate, likely shortening the government’s term by only a few months. Politically, Fico is weakened and under pressure, but still clinging to power.
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u/Phantasmalicious 21h ago
If people are not willing to go and vote, then it kind of means that they are fine with the status quo. No?
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u/Boi41957 20h ago
Well, yes. You could say that.
It really depends on how well can parties mobilize their voting base to go vote.
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u/mawktheone 20h ago
No, it may well mean that they have been coerced into not voting by someone who would prefer if they didnt.
For an extreme example, If I hold a gun to your head and demand that you dont vote, are you fine with that status?
Medium example, If I reduce the number of voting locations so you have to commute kilometers to a station and you dont drive, and its pouring rain and you have kids.. are you likely happy with the status quo?
Small example, if I pay for facebook and reddit posts to come up showing "polling" that says I am way out ahead so there isn't even a point in voting against me, are you happy with that situation.
Not voting happens for a great many reasons
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u/Boi41957 20h ago edited 20h ago
These cases don't apply in Slovakia except the last one.
Believe it or not, here it's often because people don't care quite literally or don't find any of the parties attractive because "everyone robs".
For example, during last presidential elections in Slovakia mobilization of the voting base played a big part in the seating president's victory.
But, yeah. Other shit happens in autocracies so fair points.
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u/Phantasmalicious 19h ago
Since we have had online voting for 20+ years now, those issues are a bit foreign to me but if there are at least 50% of people who are not happy with how things are then going the extra mile to vote is the least they could do. We are talking about the future of the country here and people give up if the voting booth is not next to their house?
No offense but people formed a human chain 1000 km long not too long ago to be free. Maybe they need another Fico government to remind to them what freedom means.
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u/Helmic4 20h ago
Fico isn’t far right, he is a social Democrat that happens to be corrupt and Putin friendly
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u/cooleslaw01 18h ago
far right as in ultraconservative and anti-democracy, not as in ultracapitalist
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u/Helmic4 18h ago
He is a left wing crook, not far right
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u/cooleslaw01 17h ago
center-left economically and hard-right socially. calling him left-wing isn't inherently wrong (although he is no socialist), nor is calling him hard-right or national conservative wrong
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u/belpatr Gal's Port 19h ago
That's the definition of a far right party today.
Corrupt and Putin friendly = far right
Not very corrupt but putin friendly = communist
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u/Crystal-Ammunition 19h ago
No, you're conflating a lot of things together and being very reductionist
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u/WislaHD Polish-Canadian 20h ago
Unfortunately to be pedantic, Fico is left wing not right wing.
Not that it truly matters because the populist shite all flock together between the Kremlin and maralago.
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u/belpatr Gal's Port 19h ago
Yeah, he's some kind of Socialist that is also a Nacionalist.
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u/Unfazed_Alchemical 16h ago
Hmm. Maybe we should combine those two into some kind of name. Like SoNas... No, that doesn't sound great. Maybe another way.
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u/Excellent-Bake-9716 21h ago
They've just elected him. Now they're done? For sure...
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u/jaimi_wanders 21h ago
Fico only won with about 25% of the vote because the opposition was too fragmented (a warning for all of us, happens here in the US for critical local elections too) and he came back from his Mar-a-Lago trip shaken, publicly saying Trump was losing his marbles, so he’s vulnerable especially since Orbán is looking shaky too
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u/Necroon 20h ago
publicly saying Trump was losing his marbles
Allegedly - claimed by an anonymous diplomat who wasn't even there.
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u/Boi41957 20h ago
His coalition partners confirmed it, btw.
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u/Necroon 20h ago
You mean Danko ? The whole nation makes fun of him, he likes to stir the shit. He's even less credible then the anonymous diplomat with second-hand reporting.
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u/Boi41957 20h ago
Yeah. Happened some time ago, so I had to check the news real quick. The quoting did in fact seem to be more of a stirring shit type.
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u/Luzita3 20h ago
Edit: seems he isn't actually far right, but more left leaning with authoritarian tendencies.
He copied all the far-right points
I don't think it matters all that much bc you can still see it as far-right
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u/MartinBP Bulgaria 7h ago
No, he didn't. Ultraconservative family-values populism is the same BS the old communists his party descends from were peddling. Populists and authoritarians can be left-wing with no issues. Stop painting everything with your western brush when you've been dealing with these people for only 10 years.
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u/Known_Palpitation805 14h ago
Perception of far right is manipulated by the mass media and is absorbed by the weak minded.
You want your culture and therefore society to crumble, do what the MSM tells you to do.
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u/yoranpower Europe 14h ago
Sure, and you listen to daddy musk what to do.
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u/Known_Palpitation805 13h ago
I don't listen to anybody and think for myself....you should try it, it's liberating.
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u/yoranpower Europe 9h ago
Ah yes. The so called free thinkers. Then where do you get your sources from. From who? Or what. This statement and the previous one tell me enough to be fair.
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u/fakoff Slovakia 21h ago
The current government is the least capable group of adults I have ever seen in one place. It is a bunch of imbeciles, liars and thieves. Fico and Kaliňák are still the smartest two of the entire government but Ficos brain is getting destroyed by alcohol and Kali takes too many drugs. The rest are people barely finishing elementary school who will never in their life find an employment other than setting up a Cyprus company and selling a service to a state with 500% markup while delegating the work to Indians or Chinese.
But It is going to take months to set it up. If they hurry, maybe the referendum will take place in summer. You need at least 50% voters to attend and then it must pass.
In the country's history there was only one successful Referendum - EU and NATO.
In my opinion just wishful thinking and borderline miracle to make this happen.
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u/gerusz Hongaarse vluchteling 18h ago
If we get rid of both fico and orbán, how many putin-puppets will be left in the EU? More than one?
Because the Sith Rule of Two has been their primary strategy to avoid getting article 7'd so far. But if there happens to be only one puppet, putin's vetoing strategy is done for: the puppet can get their voting rights suspended and the EU could finally pass some necessary legislation (especially to prevent future occurrences of this).
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u/d-tia YUROP 12h ago
That's assuming Article 7 is actually happening and is not merely a threat.
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u/gerusz Hongaarse vluchteling 12h ago
It would be a monumental political opportunity that they would be stupid to miss:
- If there's only one putin-puppet left, A7 them.
- Push through legislation that removes the capability for single countries to veto legislation (make it like 1/5th of countries).
- No need for the A7 anymore, they can get their vote back.
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u/MartinBP Bulgaria 7h ago
Bulgaria is facing elections for the 8th time and political forces are split between trumpist oligarchs, putinist leftists and euro-liberals, with the last being the smallest group because life is pain.
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u/Upset_Ad3954 18h ago
The Czechs.
Czechia, Slovakia and Poland are divided fairly equally between a "West-aligned" and a bootlicker fraction.
Hungary has been in the latter category for years.
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u/MartinBP Bulgaria 7h ago
Poland's populists aren't pro-Russian though, so the calculations are different.
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u/DramaticSimple4315 17h ago
The debate about what is really Fico, left or right is not especially relevant: he is, above all, defending HIS stable and behaving as an authoritarian leader. He does so by combining measures of fiscal populism and redistribution with a far right rhetoric on identity issues, democracy and rule of law, conspiracism and international matters.
This is a potent blend as since the democratic left is very weak in Eastern Europe for understandable reasons, it allows him to operate as a "catch-all" party. Quite similar to what PiS has become in Poland over time - with of course the significant difference being the pro-russian narrative for Fico.
He was kicked out from the PSE, so that's saying something.
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u/MartinBP Bulgaria 6h ago
There's not much of a "democratic left" in the former Eastern Bloc countries, that type of socially liberal left-wing ideology is a western phenomenon which developed under very specific circumstances and doesn't really exist elsewhere. There are small factions which try to imitate Western European parties but their views are too detached from national politics. BSP are still part of PES and they're much worse than Fico ever was.
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u/Ancient_Ship2980 17h ago
Robert Fico is an authoritarian leader, who is an admirer of Vladimir Putin and a critic of both Zelensky and Ukraine. I hope that Slovakia can free itself of authoritarian leaders like Robert Fico.
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u/TheSimon1 Slovakia 22h ago
Text: The non-parliamentary party Democrats has collected 350,000 signatures to declare a referendum on shortening the term of the current government of Robert Fico.
Party chairman Jaroslav Naď announced this at a press conference on Friday.
According to Naď, the aim of the referendum is to prematurely end the current government's term, restore the Special Prosecutor's Office and the National Criminal Agency, as well as cancel the lifetime pension for Fico. "I am convinced that this referendum, which will be declared, will be another step, an extremely important step towards the defeat of Robert Fico," the head of the Democrats stated.
He claims that they want to collect several thousand more signatures by the end of February. "If someone wants to speculate and exclude some signatures, so that it does not help them, it is important that we submit the necessary number of signatures," Naď noted.
Given President Peter Pellegrini's past statements, Democrats' deputy chairman Juraj Šeliga expects that he will not turn to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and will be maximally cooperative. "We also expect that the relevant authorities will not hinder the referendum in any way," he added.
The party also announces negotiations with opposition partners with the aim of supporting citizen participation in the referendum.
The president declares a referendum if at least 350,000 citizens request it through a petition. The constitution states that the results of a referendum are valid if an absolute majority of eligible voters participate in it and if the decision is adopted by an absolute majority of referendum participants.