Fighting the wrong fight: Slovak government’s biggest enemy is no longer COVID-19. It is the Slovak government.
Currently sitting at the top of the list of European virus deaths per million inhabitants and patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in a 14-day period, Slovakia is as far from its positive first-wave aftermath as humanly possible. Although experiencing one of the worst health and economic crisis since the Second World War, the Coalition constituting the Slovak government is falling apart due to internal conflicts. To make matters even worse, the country’s Prime Minister, Igor Matovič, has single-handedly, in just two days, managed to secretly purchase unregistered Russian vaccine Sputnik V and offend Slovakia’s eastern neighbour Ukraine.
The date was February 29th, 2020. For those around the world, this Saturday was unique due to its unique leap day status. For hundreds of thousands of Slovaks who had decided to take (their own) leap of faith and vote in the Parliamentary elections, this day also signified a glimpse of hope, a breakthrough. After eight years of SMER-SD’s (Smer Social Democracy) rule, which was, by the end of 2019, profoundly affected by the party’s overpriced contracts and tight contacts with some of Slovakia’s wealthiest businessmen and oligarchs, OĽANO (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities) unexpectedly snatched the victory. Led by a political activist and often the most outspoken member of the Opposition, Igor Matovič, this mixed group of mainly conservative and catholic personalities promised their voters to cleanse the corrupted judicial system and to make Slovakia a lawful state once again. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
When this destructive tsunami flooded European countries in January, it quickly crippled their healthcare systems and equally weakened their economy. Meanwhile, with the first positive case recorded on March 6th, Slovakia for a long time represented one of the only few solitary virus-free islands surrounded by the raging Covid-ocean. The new government did not wait around and, without hesitation, put in place strict rules. Out of solidarity and because the material reserves warehouses were empty due to Smer-SD’s reckless management, many Slovaks decided to sew face-masks for hospital staff and strangers who needed them. At the end of May, beginning of June, Slovakia gradually started to open up. Data published in Autumn 2020 showed that the country recorded no increase in mortality rate when compared to previous years, quite the opposite, which complimented the praise from other European countries regarding how well Slovakia dealt with the first wave.
In Summer 2020, our lives got the closest to normality as we had known it pre-COVID. For the governing Coalition, the temporary peaceful period signified a change of focus. They shifted their focus from pandemic to their pre-election agenda: reforming the judicial system, getting rid of corruption, untying the police’s hands so they could investigate suspicious contracts, the more radical division of OĽANO even tried to make the abortion laws stricter. In other words, the government of Slovakia did nothing to prepare for the second wave, which epidemiologists had predicted months before it hit. And once it did at the end of September, there was no plan in place. Once a Covid-free refuge, Slovak borders slowly started to leak. By the end of November, Slovakia was drowning.
Around this time, the eccentric personality of the Prime Minister gradually began to manifest itself. Instead of traditional press releases and conferences used to inform the public of the agreements made, Igor Matovič, like many other vocal politicians (or businessmen-become-politicians) before him, chose the social media to communicate with whoever happened to come across his posts on Facebook. He used his account in numerous inappropriate ways: he shared unofficial updates discussed during the meetings of the emergency task force (created to deal with the pandemic), uploaded informal polls based on which he would later pass policies, publicly addressed many internal affairs which would have usually been dealt with privately by the members of the Coalition, and attacked other members of the Coalition, President Zuzana Čaputová and also journalists and scientists who did not share his views. Everyone was to blame for the thousands of deaths that have quickly pilled up since September (especially Richard Sulík, Minister of Economy and once a good friend of Matovič’s), but the Prime Minister.
While Matovič’s biggest weapon against his political and ideological enemies was his Facebook account, he chose mass testing to combat COVID-19. In November, Slovakia again appeared on the title pages of foreign newspapers, this time as the first country in the world to conduct two-round nation-wide testing, which took place over two weekends. Instead of using PCR tests for this quest, Matovič decided to stick to less reliable antigen tests. In the first weekend, more than half of Slovakia’s population (3 625 332) was tested, resulting in 38 359 positive cases. During the following weekend, the worst affected regions had to carry out another round of testing. The participants who tested negative received a blue certificate enabling them to leave their house, travel to work and other regions. Although the testing led to a temporary plunge in the number of hospitalized patients and deaths, it was not sustainable. As a result, Slovakia currently records around 100 deaths and 2 000 new positive cases every day. Reinforced by the fact that no other country has tried to adopt the nation-wide testing, this approach was deemed unsuccessful. It was then when Matovič decided to change his strategy and focus on vaccination. However, instead of promoting the properly registered vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), he secretly signed a contract with Russia for their Sputnik V.
It seemed like a dream to everyone in Slovakia when the first few thousand doses arrived at the Košice airport earlier this week, mainly because no one knew they were coming, not even Slovakia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok. Well, no one but Matovič and his party colleague, Minister of Health, Marek Krajčí. Although it was a well-known fact that Matovič had led negotiations with Russia’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov, regarding a possible vaccination trade deal, the negative response he received from other members of the Coalition seemed to put an end to these talks. Well, not quite. On Monday, standing proudly in front of a plane loaded with first doses of Sputnik V, Matovič and Krajčí announced that another 2 000 000 jabs would arrive from Russia in the upcoming months. This theatrical welcoming of Russian vaccine did not receive a round of applause, as Deputy Prime Minister, Veronika Remišová, pointed out:
“It’s absurd how Igor Matovic welcomed the vaccine in Slovakia, he didn’t do it with any other vaccine.”
According to Matovič, the results of a poll his team had carried out at the end of February showed that around 300 000 Slovaks would be willing to change their negative opinion about vaccination and happily receive Sputnik V. Nevertheless, the Russian side only a few days ago requested a rolling review from EMA which means that Sputnik V is yet to be approved and officially registered. Many Slovaks view Matovič’s welcoming attitude towards the Russian vaccine as a middle finger to the other contracted companies which have failed to deliver the promised amount of doses and to the European Union as a whole. Foreign Affair Minister Korčok openly announced:
It was clear that Sputnik V was not only a vaccine but a tool of (Russian) hybrid war.
The diplomatic carnage was not over at that point. The day after the grand press conference at Košice airport, Matovič accepted an invitation to Braňo Závodský’s Radio Express talk-show. When asked what he had promised Russia in return for 2 000 000 doses of Sputnik V, the Prime Minister’s jestful answer was ‘Zakarpattia Oblast’. It is an administrative province located in southwestern Ukraine, between 1919 and 1938 perceived as a part of Czechoslovakia. Needless to say, the Ukrainian government was not impressed. The country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, immediately reacted by publishing a post on his Twitter:
It is unfortunate that the Slovak Prime Minister is spoiling the extremely friendly and sincere relations between Ukraine and Slovakia with his incorrect statements.
Ironically, only a few days before this incident, Kuleba on Twitter thanked and praised the support of Ivan Korčok who had, on the day of the 7th anniversary of Crimea Annexation, reminded that Slovakia always condemned Russia’s violent actions. One joke to ruin them all, as the fantasy fans say. Although Matovič apologized for his inappropriate joke a few days after, the damage could not be undone. Today, a graffiti reading “We will trade Slovakia for Crimea,” appeared on the walls of the Slovak consulate located in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. As it seems, this saga is far from being over.
Whether or not Matovič survives the reconstruction of his cabinet, which has been requested by some of the leaders of the Coalition parties, it does not change the fact that some significant damage has already been done. Slovakia is once again a solitary island — not because of its virus-free status, but because of its government’s and its Prime Minister’s divisive rhetoric and diplomatic suicide. One would almost forget there is a pandemic raging out there.
