‘Is Slovakia on a path to become the next Hungary? To be very honest, that remains to be seen, but some patterns are strikingly similar,’ Sophie Wilmés said at the presentation of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee report on Wednesday, 15 July, according to a recent article by POLITICO.
The former Prime Minister of Belgium (in office 2019–2020) and current Vice President of the EP from the liberal Renew Europe group visited Slovakia on 1–3 June. According to her findings, there are ‘rule of law’ issues in the Central European country regarding the independence of its judiciary and its media. She took issue with a new law adopted by Slovakian parliament that targets NGOs as well.
‘Several reforms are particularly troubling, the abolition of the special prosecutor’s office and the restructuring of the national crime agency has, as far as we are concerned, weakened expertise and capacity,’ MEP Wilmés has stated.
However, she still described the meeting with members of the Slovakian leadership as ‘constructive’. POLITICO reports that the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee's (CONT) visit to Bratislava was a lot more confrontational, with accusations of misuse of EU funds.
Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, member of the left-wing populist Smer party, has aligned himself on certain issues with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán recently, so similar attacks to those against Hungary from Brussels were almost inevitable.
Back in May, Slovakia joined Hungary in voicing their intentions to veto a new sanction package on Russia that would ban energy imports from the Eastern European country. In the same month, Prime Minister Fico appeared as a guest speaker at CPAC Hungary 2025 in Budapest, Hungary; an event where PM Orbán gave the keynote address.
Related articles:
