The coffee table was set up in a discreet corner of the vast hall of Slovakia’s public radio service RTVS, an impressive inverted pyramid built during the Communist era in the heart of Bratislava. On it lay a single candle, a red rose and a white ribbon inscribed with the words “final goodbyes.” “Let’s wear this ribbon to support RTVS as we know it,” read the message hanging from this small improvised altar to Radio and Television of Slovakia’s lost independence.
At Slovak radio’s headquarters, a note reads: “Dear colleagues, we are wearing ribbons in the colors of our media to support RTVS, so that it remains as we know it,” in Bratislava, June 26, 2024. ANDREJ BALCO FOR LE MONDE
“We’re not very optimistic, are we?” said Kristina Chrenkova, 35, a reporter for the past 10 years in the international affairs department. “We did try to do something, but we have to admit that the fate of our institution is now irreversible,” Chrenkova said sadly. On Wednesday, June 26, only a few days remained before the reform of Slovakia’s public broadcasting service, rushed through by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s national-populist majority, would come into force on July 1.
The current director, who will be dismissed immediately, was already packing his bags. His replacement will be appointed by a new government-controlled committee. Chrenkova, who keeps a cardboard sign proclaiming “Free media = happy country” in a corner of her office, remnants of recent protests, was under few illusions.
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“Several colleagues have already started to leave, but I don’t have a plan B,” said the movement’s leader, noting that some members of the majority had already given the names of journalists they dreamed of getting rid of. “Even Orban didn’t go this fast in Hungary.”
RTVS journalist Kristina Chrenkova with signs reading: “We come from an upside-down world, but we’re not idiots!” and “Free media = happy country!,” in Bratislava, June 26, 2024. ANDREJ BALCO FOR LE MONDE An atmosphere of a widespread purge
Outside, the institutions of this Central European country of 5.5 million inhabitants are falling one after another under the government’s rapid and relentless attacks. In the public and private media, ministries, museums, the judiciary and the police, troublesome employees and civil servants are being sacked by the dozen, in an atmosphere of widespread purge that has profoundly transformed the country in just nine months.
In October 2023, Fico, 59, returned to power after spending three years in the opposition and narrowly avoiding prison in a corruption case that was ultimately dismissed. Now, he is conducting a broad policy of retribution against a whole section of his country’s elites, aided by his coalition allies from the Slovak National Party (SNS), a far-right pro-Russian and conspiracist party.
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His assassination attempt in mid-May (he narrowly escaped death after being shot by a retiree from a small provincial town) has only intensified the bitterness of the prime minister, who despises “the Bratislava intellectuals.” In a long video published in early June during his recovery, he extensively criticized the “frustrated opposition,” “foreign-funded associations” and “anti-government media, especially those that are co-owned by the financial structure of [American philanthropist] George Soros” for their “hatred and aggression,” of which the shooter was allegedly a “mere messenger.”
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Source link : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/06/slovakia-undertakes-purging-of-power-within-institutions_6676878_4.html
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Publish date : 2024-07-06 07:00:00
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