The whole European Union was shocked when an investigative journalist and his fiancé was killed in Slovakia.

International media extensively covered the murder, and the last article by Ján Kuciak about the relations of the Italian mafia and Slovakian politics has been published in several outlets. He traced back the mafia ties to Robert Fico’s government. Kuciak’s murder could be connected to that article.

The Slovakian opposition demands Fico’s resignation and early elections. There have been tens of thousands holding mass protests across the country.

The anti-government atmosphere was increased, when last Monday Robert Fico accused George Soros of interfering with Slovakian politics. The Hungarian-born billionaire’s spokesman, Michael Vachon denied the accusations.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also got involved, when last Monday he said that “George Soros and his network use every opportunity to topple governments which resist immigration”.

His words caused further outrage: Istvan Kollai, former director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Bratislava, and Slovakian-Hungarian diplomat and political analyst Kalman Petocz have also reacted.

In an article published on Hungarian news and opinion site Mandiner, Kollai stated: it’s not Soros, who is behind the protests in Slovakia, but the civic middle class. “It’s not bravery to go against them, but defamatory. Those who attack the Slovakian middle class, don’t strengthen, but weaken Central Europe”, he stressed.

Kollai highlighted that the protests have little to do with immigration, the citizens are rebelling against a new type of feudalism. He wrote that “it’s not bravery from the Hungarian new-right intellectuals to blame Soros in this situation, but cowardice, distraction”.

Kalman Petocz’s article, “Letter to Viktor Orban” was published on Slovakian-Hungarian site Uj Szo. According to Petocz, Orban’s reaction “is not even a dilettant commentary, but the a conscious attempt to drag the events of a neighbouring country into the Hungarian election campaign”.

Petocz wrote that Orban knows well, neither Soros, nor other “Western imperialists” have anything to do with the fact that people are outraged and protesting in Slovakia. He asked the Hungarian prime minister not to intervene in Slovakia’s internatl affairs, “especially not in such an unfortunate and silly was as he did in Hungarian public media last Friday”.

Meanwhile, Slovakian interior minister Robert Kalinak resigned, saying that with his decision he would like to contribute to stabilising the situation in Slovakia.

Photo: MTI

Source: Hungary Journal

Republished with permission