Global Voices » Slovakia

Slovakia: Protest Against Construction Near Bratislava Castle

Tibor Blazko — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:20:37 +0000

On April 18, 200-250 [sk] people attended a protest against illegal construction near Bratislava Castle, organized by Bratislava Openly [sk]. The west side of a new white house (a continuation of a historical building, photo here) had to consist of just the ground floor and a minimal attic, but the builder - architect Dušan Fischer - discovered a 2.5-meter [sk] mistake in the measurements of height above sea level and decided to use it to increase the building's height illegally (photo). Such violations are widespread in Slovakia; to set a precedent and prevent this from happening again, the protesters demanded demolishing at least part of the building.

Slovakia: “Slavery in the Streets of Bratislava, 21st Century”

Tibor Blazko — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:59:47 +0000

Radovan Bránik highlights an instance of child abuse in his photo report, Slavery in the streets of Bratislava, 21st century [sk]. His pictures show a girl from Romania who, instead of being at school, is playing accordion for money in Bratislava's Old Town. A few older kids stand nearby, permanently checking for police presence and quickly taking the money earned by the girl. An adult woman, probably the kids' mother, is enjoying coffee and sandwiches, while the girl often has to run away from the police. A solution offered by the blog's readers: do not give them money.

Slovakia: Paying More Due to Corruption in the Area of State Tenders

Tibor Blazko — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:19:12 +0000

One of the problems with corruption in Slovakia is when friends of pro-government parties are being thanked through over-financed public projects.

State officials tend to be very flexible in their interpretation of the law. For example, in 2007, when it was necessary to start a public competition for a 119.5 million euro project, they announced it only on a small noticeboard in the hallways of the Ministry of Development; the scandal became known as the Noticeboard Tender Scandal.

Just now comes the decision of the European court [sk] in the road toll system case, where the less expensive offer was rejected because of its “suspiciously low price” of 630 million euros; the offer of the tender's winner was about 800 million.

Not so uncommon were contracts covered by commercial secrecy laws, with subsequent unofficial adjustments that included higher prices.

That's why the outgoing government had introduced new, stricter rules. For example, any state-related contract becomes valid a few days after it is published in full online [sk]. (Alliance Fair Play and Transparency International Slovakia provide their own copies [sk] with automated analyzing and the possibility of citizen comments.)

In 2010, Global Voices wrote about a highway construction pricing controversy, when the Slovak minister of transport announced that the “extremely low prices charged by Chinese road-builders would not be accepted automatically in Slovakia.” Eventually, the price of the highway construction was lowered close to the European average - and even without the Chinese companies' involvement.

But, as the recent story of overpriced Apple computers shows, the situation is still far from perfect.

Without investigating the real needs, the Slovak ministry of finance has recently been keen on quickly signing a new, more expensive licensing contract with Microsoft, which looked like it had been written by a private company. According to the ministry, avoiding discussion and public competition was necessary because of the alleged threat of economic damages (three months later, no damages have been reported yet). The signing of the contract has now been postponed [sk], due to public pressure, and the final decision is to be made once the new government is formed.

Now that SMER is back, it has already announced that highway construction prices would grow again. A friendly construction company mentioned [sk] an expected price growth of approximately 30 percent.

The idea of SMER's leader Robert Fico is to reject the cheapest and the most expensive offers. “Firms that often do not have employees win with unbeatably low prices, and then they do not pay subcontractors,” “a voice similar to Fico's” said in a newspaper interview [sk] just two days after the 2012 elections.

Below are some of the netizens' reactions to the item linked to above.

lieu:

And why do you think that striking the lowest price out will solve the problem? […] Rejecting one price will solve absolutely nothing, just puzzle everyone who joins the tender and will establish a lot of non-transparency there.

Jape:

Just do not eventually find out that the lowest bid was the only fair one and the others were bloated. And isn't not paying to subcontractors a crime? If it is not, then there is more work for lawmakers.

Chech:

If Fico insists on having the lowest price rejected, then simply the company owner who wants to build a house for 75,000 would own two companies that both have submitted a bid, one for 75,000 and the other for 74,000 euros. […] Fico's proposal will only increase the bureaucracy, is easily avoidable and thus does not solve anything. But people who do not understand … will feel that Fico is doing something and is fighting for their “certainties.”

smrek:

it's awful drivel, also the dumping price for the highway is at least [50 percent] higher than is necessary - prices have to be compared in the context of Europe - divided by two :)

BTW:

Welcome to SK :)
Again it will be the same as with the toll system, all prices will be too low and the highest will win. … This is another certainty.

babs:

Failure to pay subcontractors should be fully addressed by completely other instruments than this one. For example, by fast judiciary and efficient law enforcement. Because even the subcontractor of the most expensive bid is not guaranteed to be paid by the main supplier.

Martinn:

This logic could be used elsewhere. E.g., from Parliament we should exclude the parties with the most and least mandates. It often happens that some party fools the voters by unrealistic promises, wins elections, but then fails to fulfill their promises.

Slovakia: Corruption, Parliamentary Elections, and SMER's Comeback

Tibor Blazko — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:55:45 +0000

The March 10 victory in the Slovak parliamentary elections is not the first one for the SMER-Social Democracy party. Formerly a communist, now a social democrat, the party's leader Robert Fico has won for the third time in a row already.

In 2006, SMER had 29.1 percent of the popular vote (50 out of 150 seats). To form a government, however, Fico needed two coalition partners; one of them happened to be the Slovak National Party (SNS), whose leader, Ján Slota, was notorious for his anti-Roma and anti-Hungarian comments. Because of this partnership, Fico ended up having problems with the European social-democratic structures.

In 2010, SMER won even more votes (34.8 percent), but since it had “cannibalized” its former partners, it ended in the opposition. (One of the partners failed to enter the parliament at all, while the other was saved by extra votes earned by a political newcomer, a former hockey star Vincent Lukáč.)

Other right-wing parties refused to cooperate with SMER, accusing its politicians of corruption and overspending that “leads to Greece.” Fico, who had publicly declared shortly before the elections that he would never accept the role of an opposition MP, became one.

Before the 2010 elections, a recording of Fico's 2002 secret speech was made public: in it he declared that he had made significant amounts of money for unofficial funding of the party ‘with his own head.' Because of the way in which Fico later denied the authenticity of the record, it is common to refer to him jokingly as “a voice similar to Fico's.”

When at the end of 2011 the right-wing government fell because of disagreements over the European bailout fund, it was expected that this would be the main topic of the election campaign.

But just a few weeks later, the so-called Gorilla Scandal broke out, due to the publication of the transcripts of secret meetings between the head of Penta, a Slovak investment group, and people from various governmental structures, which allegedly took place before 2006, when nearly the same right-wing government as in 2011 was in office. The transcripts featured discussions of state economy-related topics and expensive offers.

The recordings were made by the Slovak intelligence service (SIS), as part of an operation that had begun accidentally, because one of the SIS agents happened to live in an apartment next door. The text version that was made public is not the exact transcript, and it is not clear whether all of its parts correspond to the original. It is also not known when, if ever, the participants of the secret meetings realized [sk] their conversations were being taped. And it is not clear who made the transcripts public, although it is now obvious that some media, as well as some politicians, knew about it, but were afraid to deal with it.

Fico's visits are mentioned in the recordings, too. He refused to clearly admit that he had been to the mentioned apartment. What is clear is that during the time of “his reign” the investigation of the case stopped, the “neighbor” agent was fired from SIS, and the original voice recordings were reported to have been erased (they were expected to re-surface just days before the elections, but never did).

SDKU, the main right-wing party affected the most by the affair, started its “suicide ride” by simply denying everything. The party's leader Mikulas Dzurinda declared that he had not even read the transcripts to the end. In one of the latest pre-election surveys, SDKU wasn't getting enough votes to get into the parliament.

Penta, too, denied everything, and unleashed its lawyers, who achieved a very fast court ban of the book about the Gorilla case. For a while, they also tried to take action against Facebook as one of the places where the papers had been published.

SMER, refusing to comment on any possible links between the party and corruption, focused its election campaign on social issues, declaring that “people deserve certainties” - a statement that, on the web, quickly got paired with Benjamin Franklin's words, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Benjamin Franklin: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”; Robert Fico: "People deserve certainties." (An anonymous image widely circulated online.)

(More election-inspired graphics can be found here and here.)

The publication of the transcripts caused protests across the country, the last one of which took place the day before the elections. The numbers of the protesters in Bratislava ranged from over 10,000 to just a few hundreds, with the unusually cold weather being an obstacle to making the protests more numerous. A few conflicts with the police took place [sk] during the protests as well. At the beginning, the organizers had quite unrealistic demands, such as postponing the March 10 elections until autumn, when, as they expected (somewhat naively, perhaps), the newly-started investigation would bring results.

The vote, however, took place as scheduled, and this cartoon conveys the voters' mood very well.

Because of many right-wing voters who did not come to vote (and many left-wing ones who did come), SMER now has over 50 percent of the seats and can form a new government on its own. SDKU lost two-thirds of its voters, but did get into the parliament.

Below is a short selection from a web discussion that followed this article [sk] about voter preferences on the eve of the elections.

TimmyA:

The rescue of SDKU = the rescue of the Dzurinda-[Miklos] duo. And such persons perhaps today no sane man can rescue. They do not deserve rescue. I gave them my vote in 1998 and 2002. … But a party that is spitting at its voters and even in the last days their nominees care about their own bussiness … such a party does not deserve support.

mfpvr (in reply):

I consider myself sane, and imagine, I plan to vote for SDKU, even for the first time right now. … If someone does not want to vote for SDKU just because of Dzurinda, then he's an ox, because right now there is a chance to finally send him to well-deserved retirement. … Now [the voter] has a unique chance … to get Dzurinda away [using preferential votes].

TimmyA (in reply):

A chance. So I have to BEG for any chance? It's them who have to BEG for MY VOTE… Dzurinda does not care about any preferential votes … The only chance is he will be forced to leave.

Lucia Jannovska (in reply):

Dear TimmyA
let me draw attention to myself. I personally will vote for SDKU…. Are you asking why SKDU? I got from them what I am thankful for. And I would like to continue with the reforms. The countries around [Slovakia] are envious of them already.

Kvantovy mechanik:

… The idea that “I have five rotten apples, so I have to choose one” is still relevant.

JaM:

Slovakia, Slovakia…
We had four years of Fico and it ended so that we once again had to tighten our belts. The problem was that the government that came after him had big promises but they delivered almost nothing of what they had promised…

Martin1984:

It is not necessary to save corrupt parties. It is just necessary to save Slovakia from them by not giving them our votes again and again.

And here are some comments from a discussion that followed this Pravda.sk article [sk] about the election results:

Zaza:

Congratulations to the winner of the elections. The people decided and we, who did not vote for him, will carefully watch how the idea of a welfare state is promoted. … And when SMER succeeds and, more importantly, has no scandals like those in the past … it can be that in the future I will vote for them. It would be nice, but seeing what the first statements of Mr. Fico are, in terms of PPP projects and the planned progressive taxation, I am afraid that it will be exactly what we had here two years ago.

kohinor:

People chose SMER in a democratic election. They know very well that even SMER is not doing miracles and they can also expect (!) austerity and asceticism. They also know that in case of right-wing victory they can expect just(!) austerity and asceticism. And that makes the main difference.

cerveni_koncia_2:

It is sad that the policies of those socialists are based on short-term devastation of the state budget and spreading the utter crap whose result is only Greece. Probably it would be best if Fico ruled not for four years, but for eight … Slovakia has to go through hell to let these people - Fico-voters - understand the basic principles of functionality of the economy.

Brehy:

Now I will wait for the program of the government, I will give them 100 days, during which I will be interested how they bring order to the tax mess and whether they keep promises of progressive tax and how they work to keep the prices of gas and electricity from rising….

tesa:

Gorillas remain in the parliament. Who will drive them out from there?

contris (in reply):

no one, because we are all gorillas. I would steal, you would steal, everyone would steal if [we] had a chance.

Europe: Will ACTA Treaty Pass After Protests?

Danielle Martineau — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:09:08 +0000

[All links forward to French articles unless stated otherwise.]

As of the end of the month of February 2012, the mobilization efforts of Internet users against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) [en] were still going strong. In fact, they may have begun to bear fruit.

By including infringements against the author's rights in its scope, this international treaty, which addresses intellectual property rights, also affects Internet content.

The ratification debates which were placed on the European Parliament's agenda on February 29, were put on hold in expectation of the opinion of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The issue of the treaty's conformity with European Community law was brought before the court on 22 February by the European Commission.

No ACTA - Strasbourg. Photo by Christophe Kaiser on Flickr, CC-license-BY

Taurillon, the “magazine of young Europeans -France” describes “Europe's about-face on ACTA“:

Si l’avis est négatif, l’ACTA n’a plus aucune chance en Europe. Mais en cas d’avis positif, le recours à la CJUE représente le double avantage de redonner au traité une certaine crédibilité, et de repousser son adoption à une époque suffisamment lointaine pour que la polémique se soit tassée et que l’opinion publique regarde ailleurs.

If the opinion is negative, ACTA no longer stands a chance in Europe. However, if there is a positive opinion, appealing to the ECJ would mean a double advantage by giving the treaty a certain credibility, and also pushing back implementation to a time that is far enough away when public debate has settled down and the public's attention is focused elsewhere.

Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder and spokesperson for la Quadrature du Net urges on the European deputies:

Les eurodéputés doivent résister à la stratégie de la Commission européenne, qui cherche à gagner du temps et à transformer le débat en une simple discussion juridique, et pour cela continuer à travailler au rejet d’ACTA. ACTA vise à imposer une tendance pour une politique globale du droit d’auteur qui est toxique pour l’Internet libre et pour les libertés. Le Parlement européen est le dernier rempart : il doit agir et adopter une position claire et forte, faute de quoi il laissera le champ libre à la Commission pour imposer une répression inacceptable.

The Eurodeputies must resist the European Commission's strategy of attempting to gain time and turning the debate into a simple legal discussion, thereby continuing to work towards ACTA's rejection. ACTA aims to impose a tendency for a global policy of author's rights that is toxic for the free Internet and for freedom. The European Parliament is the last line of defense: it must act and adopt a firm and clear position, otherwise it will leave the field wide open for the commission to impose an unacceptable repression.

For trucbuntu, there is no question of remaining passive while waiting for the Court to adjudicate:

Les citoyens de toute l’Europe peuvent contacter leurs représentants dans les commissions Commerce International (INTA) et Industrie (ITRE), qui se réunissent cette semaine pour discuter d’ACTA, et leur demander de continuer à travailler au sein de leur commission pour le rejet d’ACTA.

Citizens of all of Europe were able to contact their representatives in the International Trade (INTA) and Industry (ITRE) Committees, who met on February 29 to discuss ACTA. Many citizens requested their representatives to reject the proposal.

The website of the European Parliament explains the procedure and the issues of the treaty [en] that are under scrutiny, and has published ‘What you should know about ACTA‘ [en], a page of questions and answers. The ACTA workshop of the European Parliament has been the object of a storify [en] made by the Parliamentary services (link via Global Voices contributor Asteris Masouras [en]).

The organization AVAAZ submitted a petition to the European Parliament on 29 February with 2.4 million signatures against ACTA. The petition is still open:

Nous sommes vraiment proches de la victoire — notre pétition forte de 2,4 millions de signatures a ébranlé les responsables politiques partout en Europe et stoppé les censeurs. La Commission européenne est à présent en position de faiblesse et espère que la Cour de justice donnera son feu vert au traité ACTA en lui soumettant une question juridique très limitée qui recevra certainement une réponse positive.Mais si nous faisons résonner nos voix aujourd'hui, nous pouvons faire en sorte que la Cour examine tous les impacts légaux du traité ACTA et publie un avis qui fera toute la lumière sur cette attaque contre nos droits qu'est ACTA.

We are really close to victory — our petition, with 2.4 million signatures has shaken up those politicians in charge throughout Europe and stopped their censors. The European Commission is currently in a position of weakness and is hoping the Court of justice will green light the ACTA treaty by bringing before the court a very limited legal question, that will without doubt receive a positive response. But if we make our voices heard today, we will be able to get the court to examine all the legal implications of ACTA and publish an opinion that will bring to light the real attack against our rights that is ACTA.

No ACTA - Strasbourg. Photo Christophe Kaiser on Flickr, CC-license-BY

Anti-ACTA parties continue to strengthen their resources. New protests were set for 10 March, and torrentnews gives a list, with this appeal:

La liste n’est pas exhaustive, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour la compléter ;)

si certains se sentent l’âme d’un reporter- photographe en herbe, nous recherchons également des personnes pour faire un petit article photo du déroulement de la manif, rien de bien compliqué, comme fait ici pour Nice, Marseille,Bordeaux et Strasbourg.

The list is not exhaustive, do not hesitate to contact us to complete it ;)

If any individuals see themselves as budding photojournalists we are also looking for people to do a small photo story on how the protest unfolds, nothing too complicated, as it happens in Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.

For details on the elements of the debate, see also these linked articles from the Tribune on February 29, and Myeurop, on March 3. On Global Voices, see the laws SOPA/PIPA that set a precedent in the USA, here [en] and here [en]. Since the beginning of the protests, ACTA seems to have lost a lot of political momentum.

The title of this post is inspired by the end of the article “La liberté sur Internet : le filtrage de la discorde” which was published by the Institute of Research and Legal and Information studies and Communication (I.R.E.D.I.C.). It puts into perspective Internet blocking and debates the adoption of ACTA.

The original article in French was published on March 4. For background on the ACTA proposal, more articles can be found here [en].

Slovakia: Parliamentary Election Update

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:47:38 +0000

The Economist's Eastern Approaches blog writes about the situation in Slovakia prior to the March 10 parliamentary election, and about the election's results.

Slovakia: Chuck Norris Bridge

Tibor Blazko — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:06:23 +0000

In the situation when the U.S. action film star Chuck Norris leads in the public vote for the name of the bridge across the Morava River into Austria [en], blogger Ondrej Horváth recommends [sk] asking Mr. Norris before making the final decision, because otherwise it is possible that the bridge will not last there for a long time.

Slovakia, Hungary: Shrouded in Smog

Tibor Blazko — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:15:09 +0000

Blogger Ulrika Lejnarová, highlighting air pollution data from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute [sk], wonders [sk] why Slovakia, while often paying attention to the critical conditions in Hungary [en], is doing little to inform its own citizens of the domestic situation adequately, in order to avoid health complications.

Slovakia: Stop ACTA Protest

Tibor Blazko — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:07:22 +0000

An anti-ACTA rally took place in Bratislava on Feb. 4. On the protest's Facebook page [sk], nearly 7,500 people wrote they would attend, and over 3,800 wrote they'd “maybe” attend. The weather was cold and windy; the recent news from Poland, which has postponed the ratification of ACTA, was good; and it's unlikely that anything will be approved before the Slovak early elections in March. As a result, only 500 people or so showed up for the rally [sk; photos; video]. This week, a number of Slovak and Czech politicians announced they were in favor of postponing the ratification of the controversial treaty.

Slovakia: Protesting Corruption, Protesting “Gorilla”

Tibor Blazko — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:32:36 +0000

The Economist's Eastern Approaches blog writes about Slovakia's corruption scandal caused by the leaked info from the 2005-06 wiretapping operation codenamed “Gorilla” (more - here). On Friday, Jan. 27, an anti-corruption rally - “Protest Gorila” [sk; Facebook page]- took place in the capital Bratislava (photos are here, videos - here). The media reported “hundreds” to 4,000 of protesters at the rally, while blogger Ján Gašo counted [sk] at least 2,375 people on a photo taken at the time when people were still arriving at the rally.

Slovakia: Roma “Apartheid” - and New Housing?

Tibor Blazko — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:01:47 +0000

According to this report [en], a US-based Hindu group was shocked by the “maltreatment” of the Roma in Slovakia, calling “to end Roma apartheid.” At the same time, the Slovak government announced [en] a new wave of social housing construction for the Roma, expecting that “the number of illegal Roma settlements should drop by 25 percent within the next eight years.”

Slovakia: More News on Overly Expensive Website Design

Tibor Blazko — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:13:52 +0000

Aktualne.sk reports [sk] that, following the initial financial inspection by the Ministry of Culture, the Slovak National Gallery is now required to pay 140 euro back, from the 25,000 euro that it reportedly spent on its new website (more on this here and here). Meanwhile, according to the World Association of Slovaks Living Abroad, the organization's new web page (still under construction) will cost over 32,000 euro and will be paid for by the state-funded Office for Slovaks Living Abroad, whose head, according to reports [sk], has already hired his friend's company for over 55,000 euro.

Slovakia: Competition to Re-Design the National Gallery's Site

Tibor Blazko — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:47:48 +0000

In response to the 25,000-euro “minimalist” website design of the Slovak National Gallery, zajtra.sk started its own competition [sk] for the website's re-design, offering 100 euro to the winner. Authors are mostly students, and they often declare how many hours - and, sometimes, minutes - they spent on their re-design.

Slovakia: TV Show on Corruption Cancelled

Tibor Blazko — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:00:30 +0000

The Slovak public TV channel STV cancelled [sk] a scheduled live talk show on the alleged widespread corruption of 2005-2006 [en], which involved many of the country's past and present politicians. Head of RTVS (Radio and TV Slovakia) said [sk] that broadcasting such a program, produced by an external producer before the early elections in spring, “may pose a risk.” According to the blog [sk] of Miroslava Roháčová, only seven people took part in the protest in front of the TV station's building. After the most recent negotiations [sk], the show has been re-scheduled for this week.

Slovakia: 25,000 Euro for National Gallery's Website?

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:07:48 +0000

Slovak netizens are discussing the overpriced new website of the Slovak National Gallery [sk, en]: SME.sk reports [sk] that the “minimally designed” [en] site cost Slovak taxpayers some 25,000 euro (allegedly, 20 times the price of the website of the Czech National Gallery in Prague [cz]); SME.sk blogger Martin Palšovič has already sent an inquiry to the Slovak audit/control office [sk] (links via Tibor Blazko).