Slovaks vote as journalist’s murder drives ‘desire for change’

BRATISLAVA: Slovaks voted Saturday in a general election where the governing populists risked being punished amid popular outrage over the 2018 gangland-style murder of a journalist whose stories exposed high-level corruption in the eurozone country. Allegedly a hit ordered by a businessman with connections to politicians, the killing of Jan Kuciak, which also took the life of his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, has become a lightning rod for public outrage at graft in public life. Reeling from the fallout of the murder, surveys suggest that Robert Fico’s governing populist-left Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party is waning and threatened most by OLaNO, a surging centre-right opposition party focused on rooting out corruption. “Change is much needed here,” said Daniela Jonasova, a 35-year-old office clerk, who told AFP she voted for OLaNO at a Bratislava polling station. “I like the way (OLaNO leader Igor) Matovic points out what is wrong in Slovakia — I believe he’ll bring a real change,” she added, referring to OLaNO’s anti-graft focus.

According to Bratislava-based political analyst Radoslav Stefancik, “the election is primarily about the desire for decency in politics. “Instead of protesting against the ruling Smer-SD party on the streets, people will do so in polling stations,” Stefancik told AFP. The double murder triggered the largest anti-government protests since communist times and toppled Fico as prime minister, with his party colleague Peter Pellegrini taking over the reins. It also propelled Zuzana Caputova, a liberal lawyer and anti-graft activist, out of nowhere to win last year’s presidential race in this country of 5.4 million people. “There’s a strong desire for change in society,” Branislav Kovacik, the dean of the faculty of political science at the University of Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica, northern Slovakia, told AFP on Saturday. “The parties of the democratic opposition are anticipating a good result that would allow them to take power,” he added. Having vowed to immediately push through anti-corruption measures should he win office, OLaNO leader Matovic, a 46-year-old MP, appears to have galvanised voter outrage over the murders and the high-level corruption they exposed.