Fico invites Christian Democrats to fight against ‘super abortions’

The Slovak Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) has recently begun to send signals that it wants to be a constructive opposition to the government of Robert Fico (Smér), and not just to wage war implacably. The prime minister and his ministers immediately began to take advantage of this. But it is not a government-opposition battle, cooperation on laws alternates with mutual insults and accusations.

Bratislava
6:40 a.m April 24, 2024

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Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smér), on the left behind him is Minister of Labor Erik Tomáš (Voice) and on the right behind him is Milan Majerský (KDH) | Source: TASR / Profimedia

Half a year after the parliamentary elections, the government of Robert Fico (Smér) holds power in Slovakia firmly in its hands and is changing the country in its own image at a brisk pace.

Since last week, there has been a change in the relationship between the government and part of the opposition, specifically the KDH. Fico said that the Christian Democrats needed to be “politically boned”, but on the other hand, he offered them a hand and called on them to stop their “blind hatred towards the government”.

‘Super Abortions’

Christian Democratic Movement

Last fall, the KDH managed to get into the parliament after two electoral terms outside the legislature, something that no one in Slovakia has ever managed to do. The movement won 6.8 percent of the vote and ended up in the opposition alongside Progressive Slovakia, the liberal right-wing SaS and conservative populists from Igor Matovič’s Slovakia (formerly OĽaNO) movement.

This was manifested in one of the parliamentary committees, where the prime minister offered KDH that they could fight together against the adoption of children by homosexual couples, as well as something he called “super abortions”.

However, the adoption of children by same-sex couples is not allowed in Slovakia, and KDH chairman Milan Majerský said that he had not concluded any agreement with Fic. “I don’t even know what a super abortion is. It is not defined in any medical records.’

From the Prime Minister’s further statements, it emerged that by this innovation he meant the constitutional right to abortion. Recently, it has been enforced by France, for example, and Fico also rejects efforts to include this right in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Regarding Fico’s offers, Majerský further said that if well-prepared laws addressing these value or cultural-ethical issues came to parliament, he would support them. “We have them embedded in the program. We must be principled and we will vote in favor,” the head of the KDH did not rule out cooperation.

A confirmed communist

From an economic point of view, Fic’s Smér is a left-wing party, and on the liberal-conservative axis, it stands for unequivocally traditionalist positions. After all, the opponent he attacks most often and blames him for the most things is the opposition Progressive Slovakia.

Recently, as a pre-November communist, Fica has also been getting closer to the Slovak Catholic Church. Apart from bowing at the grave of Gustáv Husák, he now remembers his communist past far less than the fact that he was baptized and confirmed as a child. In the past, when asked if he believed in God, he answered in the negative.

However, that is now a thing of the past. According to Fico, the “progressive world” has pushed value and ethical issues into unacceptable places, and the church can help calm the situation. “We are going to huge extremes. I have to recognize the stabilizing role of the church in Slovakia,” he said recently.

Beast blasts and 13th pensions

However, the mentioned cultural-ethical issues are far from the only point on which the KDH and the current government coalition at least partially agree.

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The KDH’s letter addressed to the European Commission, in which the party requests that funds from the recovery plan not be withheld from Slovakia, caused great regret in the rest of the opposition. In several reports, the Commission informed Bratislava that, for example, the abolition of the special prosecutor’s office goes against the principles of the rule of law.

“We do not want a citizen to be punished for the missteps of this government,” KDH explained its move. It added that although it itself has serious reservations about changes in the judiciary, it requests that national sovereignty be respected and that Slovaks are not financially punished for it.

In addition, the Christian Democrats are now cooperating with the Minister of the Environment Tomáš Taraba (for the SNS) on a law enabling the shooting of bears, lynxes and wolves in risky situations.

According to the member of the KDH František Miklošek, this cooperation was specifically political and social pragmatism, as it is a burning problem. “Our mayors and local deputies are putting pressure on us in this,” he clarified his party’s approach.

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However, he added that, for example, there is no reason to trust Fico on the issue of tightening abortions. Also because of his words about “boning”.

In addition, the KDH has no problem supporting the current Minister of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization, Richard Raši, for the vacant position of Speaker of the Parliament following the election of Petr Pellegrini as President. The rest of the opposition outside the KDH does not intend to vote for him.

Last but not least, the Christian Democrats supported the government in the vote on thirteenth pensions. Minister of Labor Erik Tomáš (Hlas) thanked the opposition MPs for this and shook hands with Majerský.

According to the head of the KDH, his deputies voted in favor, even though they had several reservations. According to him, in exchange, they demanded from the minister that the government preserve the tax bonus for children, not reach the second pension pillar and not even raise taxes.

Cooperation or struggle?

But Tomáš already denied on Friday that he would give such guarantees. On the contrary, he published a video entitled “The Pharisaic KDH is lying again! Like a parasite, it attached itself to the 13th pensions”, where the KDH laughed that it wanted to appropriate the government’s achievements and misinterpreted the agreements before the vote.

“If I had known that they would behave in such an incorrect manner, I would not have shaken hands with Mr. Majerský after the vote,” Tomáš said.

The KDH faces criticism from other opposition parties for making a deal with the government, but the Christian Democrats reject it. “Unlike the rest of the opposition, the KDH also supports good coalition laws that have a head and a heel and can help Slovakia,” explained party vice-chairman Igor Janckulík, who regrets that the government is kicking the KDH.

SaS deputy Vladimíra Marcinková warns the KDH against cooperation with the government. He claims that Fico is trying to cover up his own cases by opening these sensitive topics. “Colleagues, don’t fall into the trap of this mafia government,” she appealed.

“The main goal of the KDH is to target the moderate voters of the government coalition, mainly the Hlas party, who are a little more conservative. But the way he does it is not happy. They argue in an incredible way about voting for thirteenth pensions. In translation, they actually say that although they voted for a thing that will cost half a billion euros, they agreed with the government that they will not rehabilitate it in any way. KDH is not doing well and they look more like useful idiots,” commented Filip Obradovič, a commentator for Denník N.

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At the same time, the government coalition is putting pressure on the KDH with this partial attraction, also because it does not miss a single opportunity to tell the movement that it is not very conservative.

“It’s hard for me to see how KDH cooperates with Progresivní Slovenské. It is completely contrary to what you should stand for,” the head of the SNS coalition, Andrej Danko, told the Christian Democrats when they supported Ivan Korčok in the presidential elections.

“However, it is an incredible shame. The KDH should be a conservative party, it should be in the national-conservative left camp, which has the majority in Slovakia today. Today, true conservatism is rather represented by the SNS and, to a large extent, Smér as well,” assessed Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Ľuboš Blaha (Smér).

At the same time, the cooperation between the Direction and KDH is not as untrodden as it might seem. Although the two parties never ruled together, after the 2006 elections, the leadership of the KDH split internally on this topic. A narrow minority of Christian Democrat leaders were in favor of government cooperation with the Direction.

Ten years ago, during the single-color government of Směr, for example, both parties were able to find agreement in the cultural-ethical area. Together they pushed through the constitutional definition of marriage as the exclusive marriage of one man and one woman.