Slovak Government MEP Calls Patriots for Europe “Anti-Eastern European”

Patriots for Europe founding members (L-R), Andrej Babis, Herbert Kickl, Viktor Orbán

Some of the members of the newly established Patriots for Europe group will no doubt breath a sigh of relief over the Slovak government party Smer-SD’s decision to stay away from the sovereigntist block after recent remarks made by their MEP Katarína Roth Neveďalová. In these the Slovak MEP accuses members of the sovereigntist-conservative bloc of being  “far-right” and holding “extreme views”.

Despite Prime Minister Robert Fico’s party campaigning on a rhetoric directed against domestic far-left progressive parties as well as on a national sovereigntist ticket during recent parliamentary as well as EP elections,  Roth Neveďalová told Slovak news agency TASR on Tuesday that her party Smer-SD aims for a renewed cooperation with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament. She also told TASR that it rejects a partnership with the political group Patriots for Europe, despite her party’s leader, Prime Minister Robert Fico, being considered a close ally to Viktor Orbán.

Negotiations with S&D are suspended for the time being, but should continue in the future, Roth Neveďalová said. Smer-SD is a social democratic party, thus in her view, their membership of the S&D would be the obvious choice, as it is “the only social democratic political group in the European Parliament (EP).” However, other members of the left-wing group, such as Germany’s SPD, have taken very different view in 2023 when they suspended SMER-SD from the bloc citing fundamental differences in their values, as well as SMER’s government coalition agreement with the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS). Differences between the S&D and the Slovak social democrats remain in central issues such as immigration, arming Ukraine, gender ideology and green policies. In these Robert Fico’s policies are often indistinguishable from that of some of the members of the PfE bloc, such as the Hungarian FIDESZ, hence some commenters have expected SMER to join the newly formed EP group.

However, Neveďalová has rejected this in no uncertain terms saying, “the Patriots for Europe faction has never been an option for us…

For us, cooperation with far-right parties such as the party of Marine Le Pen or Geert Wilders has never been considered a good decision. We will not cooperate with parties that are, among other things, anti-Eastern European, and have more extreme views,”

the Slovak government MEP told reporters.

To many in Slovakia’s neighboring countries the term “Eastern European” carries reminiscences to the cold-war era, when the region was part of the Eastern Soviet bloc, as today the preferred term used in reference to the region embracing the Visegrad 4 countries, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia and Hungary is “Central Europe”. Moreover, she did not deliberate on why she thinks that a group containing parties such as Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ or Andrej Babis’ ANO was anti-Eastern European, but Neveďalová’s surprising hostile rhetoric against three of Slovakia’s neighbors is most likely designed to win favors with S&D decision-makers.

For the moment the Slovak government party continues to be non-affiliated, but the danger is that such undiplomatic outburst could hinder co-operation among European sovereigntist forces and also cause tensions in bilateral relations with Slovakia’s neighbors.

Featured Photo: X Andrej Babis