Danko would like to go to Brussels. It would suit everyone around him | iRADIO

Although Andrej Danko got his Slovak National Party (SNS) back into the parliament and government last fall after the previous drop out. But he is not satisfied at all. He does not like the number of ministries and the fact that he is not the speaker of the parliament. He is therefore trying to partially escape from his duties in domestic politics, and since his candidacy for the presidency did not work out, he is now trying the European Parliament.

Bratislava
6:20 am May 3, 2024

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After the presidential election, it took only two days for Danko to once again question the division of forces in the government’s triple coalition of Smér, Hlas and SNS.

He came up with the idea that after the current Speaker of the Parliament Peter Pellegrini (Voice) was elected president, there was a “fundamental change in the political map” and thus the distribution of positions between the parties needs to be adjusted.

He himself has long been fond of the post of Speaker of the Parliament, after all, he already held this position himself in the years 2016-2020.

The Voice rejects any changes, appoints Minister for Investments Richard Raši to the position, and the Direction does not look forward to it either. “Although it would be good if the three coalition parties shared the three positions of constitutional officials (President Pellegrini, Prime Minister Fico and Speaker of the Parliament Danko), I respect that according to the coalition agreement the position of the head of the parliament belongs to Hlas,” said Prime Minister Fico.

‘Unpredictable Partner’

In the end, the consensus is at least that the topic of the coalition will be returned to after the June elections to the European Parliament. It was in them that Danko also decided to run, and his departure to Brussels could thus be an elegant solution for all involved.

“The key problematic point of this coalition is one particular person – Andrej Danko. He irritates the rest of the coalition and his fellow party members. Everyone wishes, and everyone would be very relieved, if Danko were to get into the European Parliament and to finally get rid of this problem,” said Peter Tkachenko, a commentator for the SME daily.

According to Jozef Majchrák, the commentator of the conservative Postoj, they are starting to get nervous about Danko’s behavior in the government. “He behaves like an unpredictable partner who keeps coming up with new demands. But Danko’s cards are far from as strong as his rhetoric, his extortion potential is relatively limited, which the coalition partners know well,” he said.

Danko can go to Europe also because he is not in a comfortable position at home. In addition to the political struggle, he is also weakened by personal transgressions. A few days ago, he learned the punishment for his January car accident in Bratislava’s Dúbravka, where he hit a pole. He received a two-year driving ban and a fine of one thousand euros, and paid another three thousand euros for the traffic light. He also set out to clean the streets of the capital as part of community service.

Although Dank managed to return the SNS back to parliament last fall, he paid a high price for it. In the ten-member parliamentary club, due to preferential votes, he remained alone as a member of the party, the other nine were made up of a “bag of fleas” of various internet disinformation.

They managed to mobilize their fan bubbles, they circled their favorites and helped the SNS to swing over the five percent threshold.

Given that in Slovakia it is not possible to hold the position of deputy and member of the government at the same time, he managed to partially deal with the unpleasant situation. He made Martina Šimkovičová the Minister of Culture, Tomáš Taraba the Minister of the Environment, and on top of that he added Kuffa’s father and son. Štefan and Filip became Tarabo’s deputies (state secretaries) at the resort.

You can read more about how radicals from the club of Slovak nationalists targeted ministries HERE.

Intelligent and dangerous

It was Taraba who proved to be a very talented politician. In the last parliamentary elections of 2020, he was elected as a candidate of Kotleb’s neo-fascist ĽSNS, but he soon left her club and cooperated with both the government and the opposition during the entire election period.

“Taraba is intelligent and much more dangerous than the rest of the CIS club. He is a political entrepreneur and in the few months at the ministry he has already managed to do a lot of damage to the Slovak environment. For example, he appointed a poacher as the head of the Tatra National Park,” explains sociologist and political scientist Soňa Szomolányi.

Also due to the fact that he was not professionally involved in the environment before, he has been promoting a more business-like perspective as head of the ministry since taking office. One of its main goals is to redefine the entire system of national parks. According to him, they limit the inhabitants of the municipalities who live and farm in them. In addition to the head of the Tatra National Park, he has already managed to dismiss a number of others, and he even wanted to cancel the Malá Fatra National Park.

He also ordered the directors of national parks to lay off eight dozen workers as part of savings and cut their budgets by tens of percent.

According to the opposition, this is also why there is now a risk of “headless construction” in protected areas, as park administrations will not bother to issue expert opinions on construction. National parks make up over five percent of Slovakia’s area. Another part of the territory consists of protected landscape areas.

By his side, he has father and son Kuff at the head of the resort. Relatives of the influential and ultra-conservative priest Marián Kuffa are charged, among other things, with dangerous threats for physically assaulting and threatening a farmer. In the leadership of the ministry, they also very quickly started behaving like papals.

Two weeks ago, it was revealed that Filip Kuffa was riding a quad bike in the Poloniny National Park in the northeast of the country. As he did not have the appropriate authorization, it is a criminal offence. The video of the ride was provided by Markíze, an employee of the resort. The Secretary of State was not accompanied by the National Park staff and was not even aware of this expedition.

In his position, he has already managed another similar feat, he flew over Mala Fatra in a helicopter, even in strictly protected areas where rare eagles or falcons nest. Again, this was without the permission of the relevant authorities and the knowledge of the national park.

He then announced that he had no plans to change his behavior. “When there is a need to take off again and inspect something, I will not have the slightest problem getting into the helicopter again,” declared Filip Kuffa.

Changing at the head of the SNS?

Ever since last year’s parliamentary elections, there has been intense speculation that Taraba would ideally like to replace Danko as head of the SNS and take his political game to the next level. She is very supportive of his candidacy for Brussels. “Andrej Danko is eminently interested in joining Brussels. And I want to help him with that,” said Taraba in an interview for Postoj.

But it won’t be easy. Danko has led the SNS for twelve years, and during that time he built such a strong position in the party that the question of his end as leader was not on the agenda, even when the SNS dropped out of parliament in 2020.

Danko consolidated his position at the head of the party even after last year’s elections. Immediately after them, he convened an extraordinary Diet, to which he did not invite the newly elected members of the SNS and allowed himself to be confirmed for the next four years.

He also secured the loyalty of party functionaries by installing a number of them in lucrative positions in state organizations. In addition, the SNS has in its statutes that it may not accept a new member without the approval of the presidency.

This ensures Danko that his party cannot be secretly infiltrated by competitors. “Taraba cannot replace Danko, he is not a party member and Danko has developed enough power instincts to know what to do in this case. I don’t think he would give him any space in the party,” explained SNS MP Roman Michelko in an interview with Denník N.

Favorite minister

While Culture Minister Šimkovičová is, according to an April survey by the Focus agency, the least trusted minister of the current government lineup (65 percent of Slovaks do not trust her, while 29 percent do), Taraba was liked by the voters of the government coalition.

It recorded the biggest shift since the last measurement. In November, after the formation of the government, 35 percent of respondents trusted him, now it has improved to 43. Specifically, among CIS voters, Taraba has 94 percent trust.

Jakub Grim

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