WHERE IS SLOVAKIA DRIFTING TOWARDS?

Robert Misik in conversation with Michal Hvorecký and Anna Durnova

WHERE IS SLOVAKIA DRIFTING TOWARDS?

The author Michal Hvorecký on authoritarianism in our neighbouring country

Michal Hvorecký is one of Slovakia's leading contemporary novelists and essayists - and at the same time one of the most courageous voices in democratic and liberal civil society. The author, who lives in Bratislava, repeatedly speaks out against the authoritarian course of Robert Fico's government, whose nationalist-populist SMER party has been ruling in a coalition with the far-right „Slovak National Party“ for around a year. Our neighbouring country is being restructured in an „Orbanist“ style, public broadcasting is being smashed and art institutions such as the Slovak National Theatre are being stripped of their management in a coup d'état. After Hvorecký called Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová a „neo-fascist“, she sued him for „defamation“, an offence punishable by up to five years in prison in Slovakia. What is happening in Slovakia is an „absolute catastrophe“, says Hvorecký. „The SNS is not just a nationalist party, it represents a nationalist ideology, stands for conspiracy myths and sympathises with Putin.“ As a novelist, Hvorecký sensed the authoritarian dangers early on, for example in his book „Trol“, a dystopia about how troll armies on the internet poison entire societies. Prime Minister Fico labelled him a „troublemaker and rioter“.

Anna Durnová, a Viennese sociology professor with Czech roots, comments on Slovakia's drift from a broader Central and Eastern European perspective. Is Central Europe - including Hungary, Slovakia and, to a certain extent, Austria - a hotbed of authoritarian temptations and a „politics of fear“?

Michal Hvorecký, Slovakian writer and journalist
Anna Durnova, Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology at the University of Vienna

Moderation
Robert Misik, Author and journalist