COMMENTARY / We are currently dealing with the situation of neighboring Slovakia. Not just because of the presidential election. Is the Czech Republic really as different as Slovakian politics and its voters make us see? And is it our fault, or is Slovakia turning away? And does it have to be like this forever?
With the advent of the old government of Robert Fico, Slovakia found itself in the opposite direction of Western politics. Both towards the attacked Ukraine and towards Russia as the aggressor. Today, with Finland and Sweden, NATO has 32 members. And Slovakia, with the tacit support of Hungary, went against alliance and European cooperation.
Not to harm, but not to help either
It’s not just Robert Fico’s government. According to research, a relatively large part of Slovak society shares the opinion that helping Ukraine means supporting the war. It is not very logical, because not helping Ukraine means helping an attacking Russia. And let Ukraine fall, demolish and accept ten or more million Ukrainians on the run with the Russian army on the Slovak border? Slovaks probably don’t want that either. They are not crazy. They just don’t want anything to do with the war, they want to be uninvolved.
The Slovak foreign minister’s meeting with Lavrov could not achieve anything. They undoubtedly suspected that in Bratislava. It was just a gesture. A gesture of change towards one’s own neutralization. But is neutrality within NATO and the EU serious? Undoubtedly: maintaining Atlantic security, the euro, EU subsidies and Western prosperity without participating in a common Western policy towards the Russian war is not disadvantageous?
By driving in the opposite direction of Western security policy while trying to maintain Western advantages and security, Bratislava disgusted everyone. The Slovaks also got to feel it right away. In public, not behind the scenes. And not only from Prague. They therefore preferred to withdraw into a non-cooperative position: we do not harm the public, but we do not cooperate. That’s what Slovak Minister Juraj Blanár looked like at the meeting of V4 foreign ministers in Prague.
Slovak geopolitics: fluctuation or more permanent change?
These days, coincidentally, the results of a regular three-year global study of the feeling of happiness in life in 140 countries were published. It has been held regularly since 2012. The United Nations, the University of Oxford, the Gallup research agency and the own Happiness Research Center participate in it.
In the happiness index, expressed on a scale from 1 to 10 and obtained by a representative survey of the adult population over a three-year period, Slovakia is in 45th place with a value of 6.257. It remains in the top ten, with a short swing for the better, for a decade. The Czech Republic rose from 28th place to 18th position from 2016 with a score of 6.822. Long-happiest Finland has a score of 7.741 and all of its Scandinavian neighbors score above 7.3.
Sweden and Finland, countries that abandoned their neutrality after many years and joined NATO due to the threat of Russian aggression, are among the happiest societies. On the other hand, Slovakia, which has been under the collective security of NATO for more than 20 years, tends towards neutrality under the pressure of the same Russian aggression, acts against NATO policy, and at the same time is not one of the most satisfied societies in the long term. With the Czech Republic, its closest neighbor with many years of coexistence in a common state, it diverges and loses its sense of happiness. What causes these paradoxes?
The feeling of happiness is not random or free
Repeated measurements of happiness in life – a relatively basic, but with the content of a rather deep feeling – show a connection with other characteristics of countries and the attitudes and actions of societies. In addition to the connection with relatively “hard” parameters of quality of life, such as life expectancy, the economic level of the country expressed in GDP per capita, as well as the perceived index of corruption, it concerns qualitative social characteristics, such as generosity expressed by citizens’ participation in charity/help with financial donations. Furthermore, people’s subjective sense of freedom in making decisions about their own lives. Last but not least, also positive social relations in society – the existence of loved ones on whom one can lean in times of need.
The sense of happiness of countries indexed from representative samples of respondents thus indicates relatively complex characteristics of the administrative, economic, democratic and social maturity of the state and social characteristics of solidarity in society. In similar studies of the quality of life, they are also indicated as important parameters of citizens’ trust in the institutions of the state and public life.
Are the Czech Republic and Slovakia moving away from each other?
The difference in the positions of the Czech and Slovak societies in relation to how to ensure their security, whether through allied ties and their mutual support and support for the Ukrainians, or through their own neutrality and non-involvement, is neither superficial nor completely accidental. It is not even a momentary political fluctuation. This is apparently a deeper dynamic of both societies, which is also expressed by whom the citizens elect and who receives a mandate to govern the country.
And it is no coincidence that in Czech conditions, it is less and less successful in mobilizing dissatisfaction and opposition to common Western and European security solidarity. Czech society is potentially moving more in a Scandinavian or Western direction than in an Eastern one and towards non-solidarity attitudes.
But it is a mutual ratio of both tendencies. Situations and developments are not black and white or free of fluctuations. Slovakia was able to absorb the euro, elect a solidarity-oriented president, Zuzana Čaputová, and fight mafianization, which culminated in the murder of journalist Kuciak. The Czech Republic was dominated for two decades by Presidents Klaus and Zeman, who were less successful in the West and therefore oriented towards the East and even pro-Russian. However, Czech society has gradually matured towards majority support for NATO membership and Western resilience. Today, it significantly collects and spends funds to support Ukrainians and Ukraine to a significantly higher extent than Slovakia.
In the proportion or mix of neutrality and solidarity, the variability of the feeling of happiness in life and its national index is also born. However, the roots of life satisfaction in the capacity for solidarity are obviously broader and have significant effects on the quality of life. For example, for concrete life expectancy, where according to the World Bank (2021) Sweden is at 83.2 years, Finland 81.9, the Czech Republic 77.4, Slovakia 74.7.
How to behave when nobody is perfect
The differences between us and Slovakia are not entirely accidental. We seem to drift away from each other. The migration of people and its direction would also give some indication of this. However, it does not follow that we should accelerate this development or choose symmetry in the tendency towards neutrality or stop having fun. On the contrary. Just as none of us can want to slow down the trend of growth in the quality of life, it does not follow from mutual differences that we should deviate from the Slovaks.
But perhaps it is time to make it clear that Slovakia cannot expect us to adapt to it if it is “stepping on its luck” with the current (super)government of non-solidarity. At the same time, let’s assume that a change of course on both sides of the Morava River is quite possible. Just as it is for the better for Slovakia, it is also for the worse for us. Even our mix of egoism and solidarity is not completely resolved, although we have improved according to the happiness index and today we are proving our better condition both towards Ukrainians and towards partners and allies within the EU and NATO. But we still have a lot of work to do in our own, Czech backyard.
Against Slovakia, let’s rely on the necessary healthy rivalry, as well as on friendly inspiration, competition and a helping hand. And not only towards Slovak students of Czech universities or energetic young Slovaks on the Czech labor market. We can – after all, for our own happiness from solidarity – do much more.
Ivan Gabal is a sociologist who in 1989 was one of the founders of the Civic Forum, headed the Department of Analysis of the Office of the President of the Republic Václav Havel (1991–1992) and sat in the Chamber of Deputies of the PČR (2013–2017, for the KDU-ČSL). It deals with the analysis of practical problems in the public and private sector and their solutions.
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