How the war in Ukraine and Russian influence is shaping Slovakia’s upcoming election

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  When the war in Ukraine first began, its Western neighbor Slovakia was one of the first European Union countries to provide military aid.

  That support, as well as Slovakia's Westward orientation, could soon be coming to an end. The small nation of 5.5 million is slated for snap elections on Saturday, and the party predicted to win is advocating for a more pro-Russian stance.

  Special correspondent Simona Foltyn reports from Slovakia.

• Simona Foltyn:

  The election campaign in Slovakia is in full swing. We're in the small town of Nitra at a rally of SMER, a conservative right-wing party that is leading the polls.

  Many of its supporters are disillusioned with Slovakia's progressive Western-leaning governments.

• Ivan Kollar, SMER Supporter (through interpreter):

  It's understandable that there is a pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Fine. But the current and previous governments were both dysfunctional, and they shouldn't have sent so much support to Ukraine.

• Jozef Sedlarik, SMER Supporter (through interpreter):

  For three years, this government has been destroying the people. They have nothing to eat. The pensions are too small.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Many here are retired and struggle to get by on a few hundred euros per month amid rising energy and food prices. Some tell us the main reason they have come is to enjoy a warm meal.

  Economic hardship has offered fertile ground for the populist policies of SMER's leader. The word SMER means direction, and the direction that Robert Fico wants to take Slovakia has the European Union worried. He's against migration.

• Robert Fico, SMER Leader (through interpreter):

  We reject any obligatory migration quotas.

• Simona Foltyn:

  And against liberalism.

• Robert Fico (through interpreter):

  We reject the introduction of gender ideologies into our schools. Marriage is a unique union between a man and a woman, period. Goodbye.

• Simona Foltyn:

  And, perhaps most significantly, he wants to reshape Slovakia's geopolitical alignment.

• Robert Fico (through interpreter):

  These will be politicians who don't have a problem to tell Brussels no, who won't have to tell Ukraine that, no, we won't give you weapons. You will only get humanitarian aid.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Long forgotten seems 2018, when the two-time former prime minister resigned following the murder of a Slovak journalist who was investigating his government's links to organized crime.

  Robert Fico has managed to stage quite the political comeback by capitalizing on internal divisions within Slovakia that have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. One of his main campaign promises has been to halt Slovakia's military support to the Ukrainian government.

  Slovakia was one of the first countries to send weapons to Ukraine, including fighter jets. It even gave away its air defense system. In the capital, Bratislava, we meet acting Defense Minister Martin Sklenar.

  Martin Sklenar, Acting Defense Minister of Slovakia: We are really doing our utmost to support them. We are a neighboring country. Whatever happens in Ukraine right now has direct influence. For us, for our security and our defense, it is important that Ukraine prevails.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Slovakia has been a member of NATO since 2004, but the partnership deepened after Russia invaded Ukraine.

• Martin Sklenar:

  We have four countries who are actually flying over Slovakia if necessary and protecting our airspace, really, another level of engagement which we haven't seen since, well, our infamous history in 1968.

• Simona Foltyn:

  1968 is when Soviet troops invaded what was then Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague spring. Vladimir Holcik and Marian Trnik, two retired water engineers, were in their 20s back then.

• Vladimir Holcik, Retired Water Engineer (through interpreter):

  They marched in. Imagine that there were tanks right here, armored vehicles, everything destroyed, looted.

• Marian Trnik, Retired Water Engineer (through interpreter):

  They came up with some pretext that there were counter-revolutionaries here, just like they came up with a pretext that there were fascists in Ukraine.

• Simona Foltyn:

  For them, the parallels between the two invasions are plain to see.

• Vladimir Holcik (through interpreter):

  It's exactly the same thing. Russia is an aggressive state, an evil empire that wants to expand.

• Simona Foltyn:

  I ask them if the Slovak government should keep supplying military aid to Ukraine.

• Vladimir Holcik (through interpreter):

  Of course we should. All of Europe should help, however they can, with planes, tanks, whatever we can provide, so that Ukraine's democracy is preserved, even if they have oligarchs, bribery and corruption. But, in the end, the Ukrainian state is a democratic one.

• Simona Foltyn:

  But fewer and fewer Slovaks share that attitude, says Dominika Hajdu hat GLOBSEC, a Bratislava-based think tank.

• Dominika Hajdu, GLOBSEC:

  For example, the support for NATO has declined. Also, when it comes to the narratives about the war in Ukraine, the support for the narratives in line with the Kremlin's propaganda have increased.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Hajdu says that Slovakia's susceptibility to disinformation is rooted in both poor education and media literacy, but also the country's history.

• Dominika Hajdu:

  So there's this narrative that Slovakia has always been under the oppression of Hungarians and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Germans, then the Czechs. You know, you name it.

• Simona Foltyn:

  This is something that's very easy for populists to tap into, this kind of sentiment.

• Dominika Hajdu:

  Absolutely. And just this notion that you actually cannot influence anything because there's always some other force behind everything really leads into this conspiratorial thinking.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Disinformation has become enough of a problem that a special unit has been set up in the Ministry of Interior to counter it.

  David Puchovsky and his small team monitor social media and debunk hoaxes.

  David Puchovsky, Ministry of Interior, Slovakia (through interpreter): There's a big base of people who believe disinformation. It's between 40 and 50 percent.

• Simona Foltyn:

  And the disinformants seem to have taken a cue from Donald Trump after the 2020 U.S. election.

• David Puchovsky (through interpreter):

  With regard to elections, we warned this spring that a narrative emerged about forged elections.

• Simona Foltyn:

  The aim of such narratives, Puchovsky warns, is to subvert the state.

  This election isn't just a fight over votes and political agendas. It has turned into a battleground in an information war that is challenging mainstream narratives, not just about current affairs, but also about Slovakia's history, and specifically the role Russia has played here in the past.

  Slovakia is peppered with memorials like this one that commemorate the Soviet Union and Russian soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany on Slovak soil. But the liberators turned into occupiers, and Slovakia remained under the yoke of the Soviet Union for almost half-a-century. Now some are trying to overhaul Russia's legacy.

  This group is called Brat Za Brata, which roughly translates into Brothers For One Another. They honor Soviet era memorials and veterans as part of what they call a fight for the truth.

  The leader, Matus Alexa, tells me the group has 70,000 registered supporters in Slovakia.

• Matus Alexa, Leader, Brat Za Brata (through interpreter):

  The objective of these activities is to not forget about the atrocities committed during World War II and to honor the heroes of the war.

• Simona Foltyn:

  Their affinity for Russia is plain to see and hear, but Alexa says their activities are purely cultural and unfairly politicized.

• Matus Alexa (through interpreter):

  We always try to stay away from politics. No political subject can dictate whether I should bow down when I want to honor my forefathers.

• Simona Foltyn:

  But the group has long been on the radar of the Ministry of Interior. Puchovsky says that they act in concert with Russian authorities.

• David Puchovsky (through interpreter):

  They put it in the context of the present, that just like those who fell here for the sake of Slovakia were heroes, the present-day Russian army is also heroic, so we have to be proud and have good relations with Russia.

• Simona Foltyn:

  It's an attempt to harness pan-Slavic sentiment in a divided nation that could soon turn into a problem child for the European Union.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Simona Foltyn in Slovakia.