Whether Robert Fico survives and resumes office or not, Slovakia stands on the brink
Posted on AllSides May 18th, 2024
From The Left
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Szilárd Koszticsák/EPA
OPINION
A few years after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, known as the “velvet divorce”, the newly independent Slovakian state to the south was already a cause of concern. The US secretary of state at the time, Madeleine Albright, called it “the black hole” of Europe.
Eventually, in 2004 Slovakia joined the EU and Nato. The assumption then in the west was that the country, finally, had a settled identity and a settled set of alliances.
Then came Robert Fico, a prototype populist. He was an early embracer of identity politics: the good...