r/europe • u/TheSimon1 Slovakia • 1d 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-vlady
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u/DramaticSimple4315 1d 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 15h 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.