The "failed Swedish prime minister" perhaps would not have failed had he focused more on governing his own country instead of lecturing us," Szijjártó said.Continue reading
No sooner were the results of the parliamentary elections in Slovakia been announced, than floodgates of attacks against the winner Robert Fico (SMER-SD) opened. Apart from the usual legacy activist media’s character assassinations, now it is the president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament who is threatening the election-winning Slovak party with expulsion from the group.
Swedish politician Stefan Löfven has sent a message to the winner of the Slovak elections in which he warned that he will monitor SMER’s decisions towards Ukraine, and will personally make sure that SMER is expelled from PES in case the Slovak Party does not change course. This echoes the conflict between the Hungarian government party Fidesz and the head of the European Peoples Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, concluding with Fidesz leaving the EP group in March 2019. Back then it was the of issue migration and gender ideology that had resulted in a split.
The winner of the elections, Robert Fico (L) during his meeting with President Zuzana Caputová. Photo: Facebook Zuzana Caputová
In his video reply to Löfven, Robert Fico pointed out that his party, SMER, has been a full member of the Party of European Socialists for more than twenty years.
The left is losing almost everywhere in Europe, so the victory of a genuine left-wing party in a parliamentary election in an EU Member State should be welcomed,”
said Fico, calling the message from the PES president “a message of blackmail.”
“Truly beautiful, democratic. Either we say what the US wants us to say, or we will be expelled. Either we join and obediently carry out the policy of one single opinion or we become pariahs if we are going to say that the EU should launch a peace initiative in Ukraine, that it is better to stop the killing immediately and negotiate peace for ten years rather than let the Russians and Ukrainians kill one another for ten years without a result. The chairman of the PES has consistently followed the philosophy that whoever is for peace is a warmonger, whoever is for war and killing is a peace activist,” Fico added.
The winner of the Slovak election added that Löfven’s message is undemocratic, disrespectful of the right to a different opinion, and it is authoritarian. “Blackmailing sovereign politicians is not right and we are sovereign politicians… We are very sorry that there is a war in Ukraine, we have condemned the use of Russian military force, but we do not intend to change our views on peace in Ukraine,” the SMER leader continued, before concluding:
We reject the policy of a single infallible opinion. If the tax for pursuing a genuine left-wing agenda in Slovakia and expressing sovereign opinions is to be our exclusion from the international party, we are prepared to pay such a tax.”
Strong words from Fico, but his main problem is that he is operating with an outdated academic conception of what it means to be a socialist. Today’s socialists almost unanimously share a certain set of policies: pro-mass migration, pro-gender ideology, anti sovereignists, supporting a European superstate at the expense of national competences, multiculturalism, and of course, strong support for arming Ukraine, thus continuing its fight against Russian occupation. These are the core values of European socialist movements, yet Fico supports none of these.
Fico has a point in saying that Löfven’s position is undemocratic and disrespects the right for opinion. But that exactly is the criticism that conservative parties have leveled at the feet of left-wing movements for years.
Hence the question is why would Fico want to stay in a parliamentary group with socialists if his party’s manifesto diverges from the new socialists’ political goals in virtually every single point.
Fidesz has remained in the political right-center ground while the rest of the former conservatives in the EPP swung towards the left. Viktor Orbán took it on the chin, and after its suspension, Fidesz had decided to leave the group that had relinquished its original ethical and political profile. Fico will inevitably have to make a similar step in the near future if he wants to be true to his voters and to his election promises. Then it only remains for Löfven to explain how calling for negotiations between warring parties became a cardinal transgression against socialist principles.
Featured Image: Stefan Löfven Facebook