SLOVAKIA: Governance Gets Ever Messier

By Zoltán Dujisin Reprint | | Print |

Zoltán Dujisin

PRAGUE, Dec 20 2007 (IPS) - The disputes within Slovakia’s governing coalition have almost caused the government’s collapse. Additional trouble can be expected, but the powerful Prime Minister’s extraordinary popularity and the weakness of the opposition are holding the coalition together.

The biggest crisis of the ruling coalition apparently came to an end Dec. 4 as the Slovak parliament simultaneously approved the government’s budget for 2008 and a confidence vote for Prime Minister Robert Fico with the support of deputies from all ruling parties.

While it was Fico’s Smer (Direction-Social Democrats) coalition with the extreme right Slovak National Party (SNS) that drew more international criticism, the alliance with the populist Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) of former prime minister Vladimir Meciar has proven far more problematic in the domestic sphere.

After emerging victorious from the June 2006 parliamentary elections, Fico surprised many analysts with his choice of coalition partners, but now many believe he wanted allies he could easily control.

Last month deputy director of the Slovak Land Fund Branislav Briza was accused of an interest in lucrative state-owned land transfers to restitution claimants. The land was later purchased by a company allegedly linked to the Meciar’s HZDS at very low prices.

Briza was quickly removed from his post by the HZDS itself, but the Slovak Land Fund responds to the agriculture ministry, until recently headed by HZDS member Miroslav Jurena, whose resignation the government also demanded.

Fico, who built his career on criticism of corrupt businessmen and politicians, eventually made the continuation of the governing coalition conditional on Jurena’s dismissal, and called it “a question of principle.”

Critics of the government argue Fico was not acting on principle, but rather used the scandal to strengthen his position in the government and in the eyes of the public.

The SNS and HZDS claimed Fico had violated the coalition agreement by using the media to put pressure on the accused instead of solving the controversy internally, though the SNS agreed with Smer’s view on the necessity of the minister’s resignation.

The agriculture minister, who is also deputy chairman of the HZDS, finally resigned and was replaced Nov. 27 by fellow party member Zdenka Kramplova, a decision grudgingly accepted by Meciar.

Authorities have cancelled the controversial land deals, initiating an investigation and announcing a full restructuring of the Fund, whereas the plots of land in question are to be returned to the state.

Meciar, who never concealed his personal dislike for Fico, has insistently argued that HZDS’s power in the ruling coalition is not consistent with its election results. The former prime minister is especially upset about lacking loyal men at both the interior ministry and the secret services.

The HZDS controls the justice and the agriculture ministries, and only the latter can be used for material benefits, say those who see corrupt practices as common for the former prime minister’s party.

But the HZDS denies responsibility for the scandal, claiming it lies with Smer’s nominees to the state land fund.

While the HZDS retaining the agriculture ministry is seen as a compromise solution, most experts expect Meciar to seek revenge for his personal humiliation: Meciar’s party has already hinted it could support an opposition initiative to investigate acquisition of land in Bratislava by Fico.

While the HZDS has also resorted to the threat of early elections when dissatisfied with policy decisions by the majority ruling party Smer, observers of Slovak politics think the former prime minister is bluffing.

Fico is an unquestionable figure in his own party, whereas Meciar’s position is strong as long as he keeps his political force in power.

“Meciar getting back at Fico can be expected, but he is really interested in staying in the coalition because his preferences are going down,” Martin Chren, director of the liberal F.A. Hayek Foundation in Bratislava told IPS. “He will try to reciprocate but it won’t be through destroying the coalition, he will find some other way.”

In contrast, the Prime Minister’s approval ratings make him the most popular politician ever in independent Slovakia, but according to Chren this won’t suffice in making Fico hold early elections.

“The Smer party has enough power in the coalition and I don’t think they want to take the risks connected to an early election, and neither does the SNS,” Chren told IPS.

Still, Fico hopes to achieve a strong enough victory in the 2010 legislative elections to govern either by itself or in coalition with another party, attracting the votes or even deputies of its junior coalition partner HZDS.

Unable to grasp the opportunities offered by the disputes within the coalition, the opposition remains splintered and unpopular, as the previous term was also marred by corruption scandals.

The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU) of former prime minister Mikulas Dzurinda failed to pass through the message that Fico should resign as the one primarily responsible for the scandal.

The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) chaired by Pavol Hrusovsky preferred blaming agriculture minister Jurena, and was critical of what it called “poor cooperation” among opposition forces.

But opposition politicians are still trying to provoke Meciar’s pride to increase tensions in the ruling camp. Hrusovsky recently told the press he had not “been witness to a greater humiliation and disgrace in Slovak politics than what Mr Meciar has received.”

Meciar ruled Slovakia in an almost autocratic style from 1994 to 1998 and brought the country of five million to international isolation when the entire Central Eastern European region was striving to join the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

The leader of the HZDS also held presidential powers for a short while in 1998, using the opportunity to grant a series of controversial amnesties for individuals suspected of abducting the son of his predecessor, former president Michal Kovac.

The past still haunts Meciar, and Fico has used this to put the coalition partner in his place. “The prime minister threatened Meciar with cancelling his amnesties, and this issue touches him personally,” Chren told IPS.