Slovakia’s special prosecutor’s office, which deals with serious corruption cases – many involving powerful lawmakers or close businessmen – was closed on Wednesday by order of Prime Minister Robert Fico. The government has also launched a campaign against critical media outlets while proposing reforms to public television, which is causing concern among journalists, Politico and Aktuality.sk report.

The first steps of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico after winning last year’s elections are already causing concern in Brussels.

From attempts to control public television to the elimination of a special prosecutor’s office and Russian propaganda, Slovakia’s ruling coalition appears to be emulating the “illiberal” policies of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Critics of the authorities drew attention to this fact. Fico is “trying to create a mafia state whose main goal is to preserve the pyramid of power,” Michal Vašechka, a political analyst at the Bratislava Political Institute, told Politico.

It’s also a busy time.

The European Commission is under increasing pressure from the European Parliament to show firmness on rule of law issues after the decision to unblock billions of euros in EU funds for Hungary, which were frozen precisely because of concerns about the independence of the judiciary.

Vice-President of the European Parliament, Martin Hojsik, a member of the Slovak opposition, said that the Commission will take the situation in Slovakia seriously. “The commission is much more determined not to repeat the mistakes that happened in Hungary with the situation that was tolerated for too long and allowed Orbán to escalate,” he said.

Hojsik also warned that if Fico’s government continues on its illiberal path, Slovakia risks losing access to EU funds.

The events take place a few days before the first round of the presidential election on March 23, where one of the favorites is the candidate of the authorities, Peter Pellegrini.

The prosecutor who bothered Fizo

The main goal of Fico after returning to power was to close the special prosecutor’s office. The Prime Minister stated that this institution “significantly contributed to the violation of human rights.”

The office’s investigation, which opened in 2004, led to numerous convictions in high-profile corruption cases, many of which were linked to Fico’s Smer party during his previous terms as prime minister, Politico writes.

Fico’s criminal code reform sparked widespread protests across the country and angered the opposition.

“Fico’s priority is to ensure impunity for his accomplices, dismantle democracy and establish some kind of autocratic regime,” former Prime Minister Ludovit Odor, who is running in the European elections for the liberal Progressive Slovakia party, told Politico (PS). .

In late February, Slovakia’s Constitutional Court suspended part of Fico’s reform of the criminal code, which softened penalties for corruption and shortened the statute of limitations for serious crimes such as rape.

But the decision of the Constitutional Court did not block the dissolution of the special prosecutor’s office and the removal of its head, Prosecutor General Daniel Lipshits.

“Lipšić and his men have been systematically persecuting Fico and Fico’s people for the past three and a half years. Lipsic is the most important enemy of Fico and his people, not the opposition, not the intellectuals,” stressed Michal Vašechka, a political analyst at the Bratislava Institute of Politics.

According to Vašechka, Fico is currently focusing on positioning his people in key institutions – as Orbán did in Hungary.

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders in December sent a letter with a request to the authorities not to abolish the prosecutor’s office. The head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Laura Codruca Kevesi, told Politico in February that she was “very concerned” and had sent a letter to the Commission outlining her concerns.

On Tuesday, suspended prosecutor Daniel Lipsic emphasized that he is at peace with the work he has done.

“We will leave here with our heads held high, and that is the most important thing,” he said, according to the Slovak publication Aktuality.sk.

“The hectic pace of the last few days has been unbelievable. No institution was abolished in such a regime as the special prosecutor’s office,” said Lipsic.

Problems of press freedom

It seems Fico’s next move will be to attack the media in Slovakia.

Shortly after coming to power last fall, the government cut ties with four national media outlets, calling them “hostile” and “not sufficiently objective.”

Instead, he favors pro-Russian media such as Main Affairs, which propagates the Kremlin’s narrative, Politico writes.

Fico also attacked the public radio and television station of Slovakia (RTVS) for failing to fulfill its obligations and demanded a change in its management.

The situation escalated in March when Culture Minister Martina Šimković announced a bill to close RTVS and replace it with a new body called Slovak Television and Radio (STaR), which will be run by political appointees.

“It is a fact that now people rely more on alternative media. why It’s simple. Because in the mainstream media, Slovakian residents receive information from only one spectrum and one truth,” said Shymkovičova.

In 2018, the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kushnirova sparked the biggest protests since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, when Slovaks took to the streets to demand the overthrow of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

After the assassination, Fico resigned as prime minister, along with several other high-ranking officials, but is now back in power.

Shymkovich’s proposal comes just a day before MEPs last week gave the final green light to a European press freedom law that bars EU governments from interfering in editorial decisions and forces journalists to reveal their sources.

The reform, initiated by the Slovak government, drew sharp criticism from journalists and the opposition.

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