BHHRG

The Roma were overwhelmingly scathing about the government in Bratislava, claiming that none of its members ever came to visit them. The minister responsible for ethnic minorities, Pal Csaky, is an ethnic Hungarian and the Roma were quick to point out that is the only minority he cares about. They claimed that the government had ‘stolen’ money given to Slovakia by foreign donors explicitly for Roma projects and, it is hard not to believe that such allegations are mere idle gossip – EU funds have disappeared into the void in both Slovakia and Romania. For example, in 2001 “Roland Toth in charge of development project funding from the EU has been accused of misusing €330 m. in EU taxpayers’ money”.[1] The minister responsible, Pavel Hamzik, was also dismissed.
Part of the problem lies in the centralised way the country is governed. Slovakia’s election law treats Slovakia as one constituency meaning that party lists contain few names that mean anything to local voters even with the addition of a handful of preferential votes. By 2004, like many citizens in the former Communist bloc, Slovak voters had tried out most parties from left to right of the spectrum, most of which had failed to improve their lives in any way. Politics revolves around Bratislava from where the elites seem almost totally preoccupied with what goes on in Brussels either at NATO headquarters or in the EU’s corridors of power rather than their own country. The difficulty in reaching the necessary 50% turnout in Slovakia’s EU referendum in May 2003 led to accusations of fraud[2] and was testament to peoples’ disappointment with the result of EU inspired reforms. Slovakia is a small state lacking in self-confidence after years of being looked down upon by Prague and it now behaves like a slavish puppy dog panting eagerly at the feet of its big brothers in Western Europe, prepared to do anything demanded of it.
The government has also embarked upon a policy of economic reform that adds up to little less than bribing foreign companies to invest in Slovakia. The most high-profile example of this to date has been government ‘sweeteners’ offered to US Steel to encourage it to invest in Eastern Slovakia which involved a $500m. initial payment to the company and a ten year tax holiday while a blind eye was turned to its over production of steel in contravention of the EU accession agreement signed by Slovakia in 2003. This arrangement landed Slovakia in trouble and, although a compromise has been reached, such arrangements may prove problematic in the future.[3] The question remains as to whether or not US Steel will remain in Slovakia anyway when the ten years is up.
A similar deal has just been entered into with the Korean car company Hyundai Kia Motors which has been promised Sk.1.5 – 1.6 billion (€37 – 39m.) by the government in Bratislava to build a factory in Žilina in central Slovakia.[4] Added to this healthy pourboire the Slovaks have also committed to completing the construction of a motorway to the town by 2007 which will add Sk. 17.8 billion (€440m.) to the total cost plus, the railway network will have to be updated and money found to purchase the site for the factory. Even some Slovak politicians, notably Robert Fico, have expressed alarm at the level of state subsidy involved in the deal.
Approximately 2,800 extra jobs will be created at Žilina if the project is completed according to the projected time frame. But, it will barely dent the unemployment figures in Slovakia and all such projects run the risk that the foreign investor will cut and run if the going gets tough – as happened with BMW in Longbridge, Birmingham U.K. Such projects also cause resentment among the general public which, in Slovakia, pay a flat tax of 19% while affluent foreign mega-corporations get generous tax holidays.
In fact, no projects have been undertaken in Slovakia that might mop up a serious number of the unemployed even though a policy of public works – such as road building - would have enhanced the country’s future competitiveness. Projects such as this could also have provided labouring jobs of the kind the Roma population are used to.
The Romanies and Slovakia’s politicians
The only politician to have shown some understanding of the problems faced by ordinary people is Vladimir Mečiar who was prime minister of Slovakia almost continuously between 1993-1998. Although Mečiar supported EU entry he originally opposed Slovakia joining NATO which he saw as an expensive irrelevance for a small country with no obvious enemies. Mečiar also objected to the sale of the country’s utilities – its crown jewels – to foreign companies. This led to him becoming a hate figure for the West where he was attacked for ‘populism’ - among other smears. He was finally removed from power in 1998 after a long campaign mounted in both Washington and Brussels. Despite the battering he received at the hands of his enemies, Mečiar is still the most popular politician in Slovakia and he is standing as a candidate in the presidential election due to take place on 3rd April 2004. As this report is written, he leads in the opinion polls. But, despite having done everything demanded by Slovakia’s Western overlords, including changing his mind on NATO, Mečiar is unlikely to be ‘allowed’ to win.
His major rival is the country’s Foreign Minister, Eduard Kukan, a former senior Communist who was once Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to Ethiopia as well as being, allegedly, a leading asset of the Statni Bezpecnost (St. B). With such credentials, it should come as no surprise to learn that he is the West’s favoured candidate. His sickly green election posters showing a reptilian Kukan were on display all over Eastern Slovakia as were those for other candidates for the presidency - Ivan Gasparovic, Frantisek Miklosko and Martin Butora. The present incumbent, Rudolf Schuster, is a local bigwig who was the former mayor of Kosiče,. However, his star seems to have waned for some reason and he was standing third in local opinion polls in early March 2004. There were no posters anywhere for Mr. Mečiar which might have had something to do with the fact that Kukan et al. have been accused of breaking the law by posting election materials before the official campaign period began.
While the HZDS government was in power, the issue of Roma rights was cynically (and dishonestly) used as a stick with which to beat Mečiar. He was maliciously – and falsely - accused of anti-Roma racist remarks in 1993, something repeated by Mrs. Orgovanova on her web page.[5] As prime minister, Mr. Mečiar had a good working relationship with the Roma population most of whom still vocally support him and his party, the Movement for A Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) something confirmed to the Group by Romas during its March, 2004 visit to Slovakia.. However, when Mečiar was finally disposed on in 1998, the Bratislava elite soon lost interest in their fate.