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Smer is economically leftist, socially deeply conservative and internationally anti-West and pro-Russia. The party values are a direct reflection of their core voter base, which consist of poor, rural 40-(now more like 50)somethings, that rely on state aid to survive and are deeply nostalgic about good old times of their youth in socialist Czechoslovakia, where jobs were guaranteed, gays didn't exist, Moscow was the centre of the world, West was the enemy and they weren't old. Smer also tapped heavily into the rising xenophobia in Slovakia, by offering an anti-West party that was seen as relatively reasonable and rational, compared to the more unhinged alternatives, which attracted a lot of conservative young and urban voters. The leader in Smer and pretty much the only person who matters there, is Robert Fico and unsurprisingly , he is corrupt, ideologically bankrupt crook with ties to organized crime, but he is also relatively pragmatic. He does a lot of grandstanding and fiery rhetoric for domestic audiences, but internationally, he is deeply unwilling to upset the status quo and endanger the flow of EU funds into Slovakia (because he and his friends are experts at misappropriating them and a lot of his power and influence stem from sharing access to them). So I am actually not sure how much will the position of Slovakia regarding Ukraine change in practice and how much will Slovakia be an obstacle for future EU and NATO initiatives for helping Ukraine in the future. So overall, this sucks a whole lot, but it could suck a lot more. There is also a possibility that the liberal party who finished second will pull a miracle and create a ruling coalition without Smer, but lol about that being realistic. I am just glad, that out of the several parties of wacky nazis, only one managed to barely cross the threshold and get into the parliament.
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Oct 2, 2023 10:34
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:57 |
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I mean....that kinda checks out? 
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Oct 2, 2023 16:15
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Hlas is an offshoot of Smer and bills itself as basically a more moderate and pro-European version of Smer. Unfortunately, they still have friendly ties to Smer, so the most likely ruling coalition is Smer-Hlas-SNS. Hlas would almost certainly be the moderate and liberal member of such coalition trying to rein the....excesses of the other two parties, while being solidly in the centre themselves (centre-right socially, centre-left economically)
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Oct 2, 2023 16:42
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Kikas posted:Czechs are the guys who came out very much on top when the Berlin Wall fell, a better version of what happened to Poland. Many Slovaks would tell you aaaaaalll about this in great detail. If you should listen to them, however, is another matter entirely.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:18
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I for one, welcome our new Polish overlords. EU was dumb anyways.
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Oct 24, 2023 19:29
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A part of it is the legacy of Soviet Union and the fact that Russia(n speaking empire) was at one point in time a legitimate rival and alternative to United States, even if that point was more than 30 years in the past. You would think it is an ancient history, but folks in their 50s and older still remember and often genuinely can't comprehend that current Russia isn't even a shadow of it's former self and the idea of it rivaling United States (heck, or even European Union) is laughable. And a part of it is that the one thing modern Russia is legitimately good at is the spreading of propaganda and disinfo campaigns that paint Russia not only as a country that (still) matters, but as one of the good ones fighting against evil West and it's woke fascism. You can directly trace a truly staggering amount of brainrot, especially in Eastern Europe, to various "alternative" channels and news sources that are pretty transparently funded by Russia. And finally, a part of it is people being legitimately dumb and wishfully thinking that the wild leopard that is currently mauling their neighbor won't come and maul them once he finishes, but will instead go and maul whoever they point at.
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Dec 13, 2023 14:56
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advanced statsman posted:We are rehashing an old Reddit thread lol https://www.reddit.com/r/lithuania/comments/c10tp7/lietuvi%C5%A1ka_duona_geriausia_duona_pasaulyje/. Funnily, one answer says "only Italian bread can compete with Lithuanian bread imo" That's like starting a discussion about what chocolate is the best and then saying that you are a white chocolate supremacist. 
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Apr 6, 2024 17:28
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In less pleasant news, yesterday was a presidential elections day in Slovakia and Peter Pellegrini won. For context, he is pretty much fully in pocket of Robert Fico, even if he arguably really doesn't want to be. So our corrupt, anti-western, pro-russian and deeply conservative coalition (with actual nazis being a part of it) now has full control over basically all major governmental institutions in Slovakia and will probably receive no pushback going forward (outside of passionate, but so far pretty ineffectual protests). Great 
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Apr 7, 2024 09:48
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anilEhilated posted:There's also the fact that the previous government they voted for (which explicitly stood against Fico and his brand of "social democracy") turned out to be bugfuck insane so they went back to the devil they knew. Yeah, the general trends of Eastern European countries slowly sliding into conservative hellhole still apply, but specifically for Slovakia, the previous government is easily the main culprit. They were a pro-western and anti-Fico coalition that was only united in how much they hate Fico and noone, probably not even themselves, really expected they get into power. But one huge scandal later, they suddenly were in power and they quickly realized that not only do they all have completely different political goals they don't know how to execute (including a pretty big segment that went "Fico became super rich by being a corrupt PoS, gently caress it, lets do the same for as long as we can!", unfortunetely those people had no issues with not knowing what to do ), but that they hate each other only marginally less than they hate Fico. They would be objectively a pretty horrible government even during a peaceful and prosperous period, but they had to immediately deal with the Covid epidemics, the war in Ukraine and the resulting economic crises. And to say that they completely dropped the ball in the majority of those cases would be putting it lightly. Noone did more for Fico's return to power than them.
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Apr 7, 2024 11:42
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Heck no, I loathe Eastern Europe too much to not be from there.
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Apr 29, 2024 16:52
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:57 |
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This sucks, and there is basically no way that it won't end badly. 
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May 15, 2024 15:34
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