Slovakia

The attempt to cover up the truth about the Chernobyl disaster helped foster environmental awareness and demands for transparency in Czechoslovakia and became a catalyst for the 1989 revolution. Today, however, this plays almost no role in either successor state.

With the return of former Prime Minister Fico, old authoritarian patterns could resurface in the upcoming elections. However, progressives also have a chance to win.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 disease has brought about an extraordinary situation. Although the past decades have brought numerous challenges like terrorism or the climate change, the global spread of a disease for which there is neither a cure nor vaccination available is something that political leaders have no experience in tackling.

February 2020 will be written into the modern political history of Slovakia as a month with a great turning point which combined in a special way two dramatic themes in the internal political development of the country.