Machiavellian Objectives on Freedom

When analysing Slovakia's red prince Robert Fico - in the meantime holding only the official title of "Prime-Minister" - one can make a fairly accurate educated guess, how this person thinks and what seem to be his ulterior motives. Even, when those analysed outcomes may appear rather retro "pre-1989" soviet styled or totalitarian, it would give an average person a certain feeling of absurdity, such that these thoughts would finally be regarded as too far fetched and far from realistic. Not quite.

Fico has one slight weak point (though this attribute is not exclusively his alone), and that is that he somehow has not the capability to fully cover up certain faux pas. His constant clumsiness is sometimes becoming not just embarrassing, but to a point perhaps even utterly pitiful.

A recent Czech publication where a former Czech social-democratic prime-minister Miloš Zeman, quoted Fico during one of his visits. The quote is not very flattering, as Robert Fico openly admitted that his strategy to win the favour of his electorate is just giving them higher social welfare and not freedom [sic.].

Admittedly, it is not so much of an bolt-out-of-the-blue type surprise. Au contraire. What is comical, that comrade Fico, when directly asked during a press conference about this quote, our dear leader refuses to answer (in fact, he doesn't even deny it), only murmuring that journalists should pose more logical questions. 

The question in fact is more than logical, since the nature of his implication is serious enough, and as a journalist one would certainly have a profound interest to have this confirmed or not. My reaction as a reader is, that I would have preferred a prime-minister, capable of giving a more logical answer. Fico was clearly exposed, especially by his answer. One may have been doubting Fico for a long time, but the more time goes by, the more these doubts are being confirmed by facts.  In addition, the very fact itself, that the source is a politician from the same political spectrum and that Mr Zeman clearly holds a different view as transpires from the article, says enough about the level of Fico's behaviour and even his 'political wit' (...  rather the lack of it)

Comrade soviet style Fico, has proven to have a rather Machiavellian ideas on what to do with Freedom: To ruthlessly trample it, and then cynically laugh society into its face. If only he could at least pretend to have some good manners...

MS