Jakub Bokes is a writer and doctoral researcher based at the London School of Economics.
Last week’s shooting of Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, is the product of a long intensification of political conflict. But beneath Slovakia’s overheated politics is a fundamental hollowness — and an impasse in the neoliberal order built in the 2000s.
The September 30 election in Slovakia was widely reported as a win for “pro-Moscow candidate” Robert Fico. But the Left should listen to the working-class voters who rallied behind Fico’s party — and understand that the vote wasn’t just about Ukraine.
As Slovakia heads toward a snap election, former prime minister Robert Fico is surging in polls. His Smer party has a record of defending welfare spending — but its scandals and nationalist rhetoric make it hard for many left-wingers to support.