For Putin’s collaborators and especially for ours in the Carpathian Basin and Felvidék (historic Hungarian name for current Slovakian territories), for all those who want peace at the cost of destroying Ukraine I have only one message: go f… yourselves!
It is hard to resist the impression that the above Facebook post reads very much like an acceptance speech at being invited to a well-endowed U.S. thinktank, such as Globsec, that he used to work for. However, an emotionally unhinged Foreign Secretary as Mr. Kácer appears to be, is sadly also a verdict over the current state of Slovakia’s democracy. The fact that he can remain in his post after such a gross violation of basic tenets of diplomacy speaks volumes about the Eduard Heger-lead government in Bratislava. Furthermore, the conspicuous silence from Brussels is a testament to the toxic political culture that the European Union is willing to tolerate in Europe in order to strengthen its federalist ambitions and to discredit its opponents.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Facebook Eduard Heger
There are, however, some chronically distorted narratives within Mr. Kácer’s “me and and the Americans” monologue. It was not only wife-beating Slovak nationalists or the government in Budapest who had doubts about the imminent full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The reason behind the amount of skepticism all across Europe was, to a large extent, a result of the fact the government in Kiev had itself dismissed the idea of a full-scale Russian invasion only days before it actually happened.
Ukrainian President Zelensky scolded foreign leaders warning about a Russian invasion by saying: “This means panic on the market, panic in the financial sector”. Ukrainian officials warned against alarmism at the same time as American families were already being evacuated from the country. Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the move as “premature” and “excessive caution.” Two weeks later, Putin’s troops crossed the border.
As far as the United State’s position as a benign and reliable global beacon of freedom is concerned, something that that the Slovak Foreign secretary is an absolute believer in, one must point out that
we live in a post-Kabul-airlift-age, therefore his overtly uncritical optimism and trust is indefensible.
The unmitigated disaster that Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan represented, a historic defeat in yet another proxy-war against Iran and China, should be an active data point for interpreting the prospects of military intervention in Ukraine.
Evacuees load on to a U.S. Air Force plane at Hamid Karzai Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Wikipedia.
Mr. Kácer’s recent communications have proved to be an embarrassment to his own colleagues in the Slovak government, and some of them have actively distanced themselves from the increasingly unpredictable foreign minister. If polls are correct,
the Slovak government that is currently on a life-support from its sponsors in Brussels and Washington, will most probably fall during the September early elections,
and the governing party might not even cross the parliamentary threshold (currently on 6.5 percent). The Visegrad alliance can, and probably will weather this interim period, but the current foreign secretary’s continued presence in the Slovak government is guaranteed to further erode essential regional cooperation among neighbors.
Featured Image: Pixabay