Politics: Four Jokers Lead the Pack
Politics: Four Jokers Lead the Pack
Author(s): Rado Bato Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Transitions Online
Keywords: Slovakia; parliamentary elections; SaS; SDKU; Robert Fico; tax policy; corruption; Richard Sulik; KDH; GDP; education; retirement savings; Dzurinda; health care; politics; minimum wage;
Summary/Abstract: A somewhat tongue-in-cheek analysis of the campaign promises made by four leading Slovak parties ahead of the 12 June elections. Slovak journalist Rado Bato decided to deconstruct the electoral platforms of the four leading parties going into the 12 June parliamentary elections. Here is a brief rundown of the main players: • Smer-SD (Direction - Social Democracy): Leftist, populist party headed by Robert Fico, prime minister since 2006. Sme, the paper in which this commentary appeared, has been a target of Fico’s frequent assaults on the Slovak media. • SDKU (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union): Lead party in the centrist government headed by Mikulas Dzurinda between 1998 and 2006. • KDH (Christian Democratic Movement): An original member of the governing coalition under Dzurinda; left the coalition several months before the 2006 elections. • SaS (Freedom and Solidarity): Liberal party founded in 2009 by economist Richard Sulik.
Journal: Transitions Online
- Issue Year: 2010
- Issue No: 06/15
- Page Count: 4
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF