The Slovak Progressives changed their name to Pro-European Slovakia on posters for the European elections. After the failure in the fight for parliament and the presidential palace, they want to defeat Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Direction party, which they blame for dragging the country into Russia’s arms. The Republic movement or the Kotlebovci party already promises on billboards that they will stop the so-called dictates of Brussels. Even the elections to the European Parliament will be a clash in Slovakia about the country’s foreign policy orientation.
EURO SERIES
Sobrance
14:00 April 23, 2024
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Print
Copy the url address
Abbreviated address
Copy to clipboard
Close
Sobrance lies on the route of the planned highway to the Ukrainian border. According to the mayor, most people just drive through the region Photo: Ladislav Novák | Source: Czech Radio
In eastern Slovakia, they hope that the future of the European Union will remain set on the current course
“Everyone wants it. Our prime minister and the entire government want it,” says restaurant owner Jozef about Ukraine’s future entry into the European Union. Economists and politicians have been promising a significant development leap for eastern Slovakia for years.
Listen to a report from eastern Slovakia by Ladislav Novák
“It would probably be beneficial. It is expected that Ukrainians will work here because Slovakia is dying out,” adds Jozef, who runs a canteen on the outskirts of the eastern Slovak town of Sobrance. The lunch menu, converted for about 140 crowns, is mainly attended by workers from the surrounding area. It gets crowded around noon. However, according to Jozef, local entrepreneurs are fighting for existence.
“It is very heavy. Everyone is happy to survive. When he has enough to pay. And maybe he still has some crown left. There are no factories here. Everyone goes to work for you in the Czech Republic, Germany or Holland,” says Jozef.
The whole district left
Florist Beáta is tying a blue and white puget for her neighbor. According to her, entrepreneurs do not succeed in the East and young people do not stay.
“It’s hard to get a job here. We only have a few shops here, there is no industry to develop. At least not in the last 26 years I’ve lived here. Young people mostly go away from here. My son came to Slovakia after seven years in the United States. He was horrified to see the prices in the restaurants here. He said he didn’t want to come back here. If someone here earns a thousand euros and needs to support the family, pay the rent, it is not possible to make a living from it,” thinks Beáta.
According to the mayor of Sobrance, Ján Sklár, as many people left eastern Slovakia as if the entire district of Medzilaborce had packed up. Development is also hindered by the lack of infrastructure.
“The district of Sobrance does not have a railway network at all. Even the highway to the border crossing between Slovakia and Ukraine has not yet been completed. This is our handicap, because of which there is a lack of investment,” explains Sklár.
Waiting for Ukraine
The future expansion of the European family to include Ukraine can be a recipe for upliftment of the region on the Schengen periphery. Slovak economists and politicians have been clamoring for it for years. They expect the same effect as occurred in the Austrian border state of Burgenland after Slovakia joined the EU.
“When the borders opened, Slovaks started going shopping in droves, they started buying houses there. And today there are whole villages where the majority or a significant part of the inhabitants are Slovaks. They pay taxes there, create communities. Thanks to this, the region is flourishing,” says political scientist Michal Cirner from the University of Prešov.
“A very similar effect could occur in eastern Slovakia. Ukraine is a huge country with huge economic potential,” adds Cirner.
Ukraine’s entry into the EU would bring Ukrainian investments to the Košice and Prešov regions, and operations and businesses would be created, Mayor Sklár believes. Demand for housing would rise and competition would lead to rising wages.
“We see this as an opportunity for development. The border communities in the east of Austria rose after the accession of Slovakia. It is an example of good practice. Regions that, like ours, were neglected or depopulated, visibly lifted up,” says Sklár.
Investment across the border is already coming. A Ukrainian company in Sobrancy bought a dilapidated hotel by the main road and started repairs. The current ruin could soon welcome guests again. The Ukrainian investor is also planning to resume production at the local engineering plant.
The two faces of Robert Fico
Prime Minister Robert Fico supported Ukraine in its bid to join the European Union. At a recent meeting with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, in Michalovci, they also confirmed several joint cross-border projects, such as the construction of the Košice-Kyiv railway connection.
But critics point to Fico’s two faces. They speak differently in the international arena, differently to their own voters.
The land of tulips and cocaine. The Netherlands is solving how to stop smugglers and close the drug gates to the EU
Read the article
“Fico accepts the reality of international politics and supports EU positions, including the acceptance of Ukraine. However, Fico presents a different rhetoric to the domestic electorate, when he has a sharper vocabulary towards Ukraine. It is political pragmatism. It preserves the possibility for him to draw the benefits of membership in the union and at the same time maintains high political support for him on the domestic scene,” says Tomáš Dvorský, a political scientist from the University of Košice.
Fico said about Ukraine that it is not a sovereign state. According to him, the conflict with Russia was caused by “Ukrainian fascists”.
The opposition fears that the country is being pulled to the East. Progressive Slovakia is clearly opposed to this. On the posters, the name was changed to Pro-European Slovakia for the purposes of the campaign. He promises to keep the country in Europe. He considers the integration of Ukraine to be the key to the development of the eastern regions of Slovakia.
PS candidate for the European Parliament Ľubica Karvačová considers the start of cross-border projects in Michalovce to be a step in the right direction.
“It’s as if the government has finally realized that (..) the integration of Ukraine into the EU is a plan for the development of eastern Slovakia,” she wrote for the SME daily. But he warns against empty political gestures while the government is not actually doing anything.
Euroseries
In June, new MEPs will be elected and then the European Commission will be established, the institution will set priorities for the next five years. What themes crystallized before the European elections? And what drives the campaign in the member states? Moods in the Czech Republic are mapped in detail by the project Divided by Europe, the atmosphere in the other 26 countries of the Union will now be brought closer by the Euroseries of Radiožurnál and iROZHLAS.
It presents differences from west to east and from north to south. They will focus on the fight against climate change in Portugal, the popularity of the French extreme right, the fight against Russian disinformation in Estonia or the departure of Croats to other EU countries.
Ladislav Novak
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Print
Copy the url address
Abbreviated address
Copy to clipboard
Close
