Alarming Tolerance of Evil

So shortly after Christmas, which is supposed to be a time of a reflection and good spirit, starting a blog with such a heading was quite a dilemma. Nevertheless this Christmas news has somewhat showed a stark contrast where we should become highly alert:

Slovakia has now for half a year been under a 'right' coalition, and while the surface of the waters seems to have calmed down, a tense undercurrent is noticeable. An undercurrent, which cannot be simply compared to a coalitions' role like in other democratic countries. 

Whereas the present government is balancing between surfacing unveiled corruption scandals from the previous administration and trying to change legislation to such an extent, where control mechanisms would prevent further damage, giving it sometimes an impression of hasty fire-fighting, criticism of the opposition would be natural.

Criticism, however, which tries to over-shout its own gross faux-pas becomes fairly embarrassing, but the more dangerous, when taken into account that such criticism perhaps is even shared by a considerable part of the population. Moreover, especially when it receives medialisation - that gives it a certain cachet. 

The president himself has aired some of his own 'reflections', which are to say the least ambiguous. Labelling the present government as causing nervousness is a bit not-done. Although president Gašparovič has frequently proven to be a mere principles-lacking puppet of our soviet-craving comrade Fico, his vision - perhaps misty by the Christmas punch - has been a bit inappropriate. Being surprised about the dramatic outcome for the then looting SNS coalition-partner, proves a horribly poor ability of political judgment. Or is it a slight nostalgic sorrow of the vanished wishful statehood of old style totalitarianism with extremist nationalism?

Concurrently, Ján Slota, the high priest of ancient Slovak values and boss of the very same SNS, has formally congratulated Lukashenko on his 'democratic victory' to be re-elected, keeping Belarus as the last bastion of dictatorship. One would expect no-one taking Slota too seriously, but the repeated signals coming from people like Fico, Slota or Gašparovič are not so much a sign of the personal views of these three anachronistic musketeers, it reflects a certain dangerous sentiment within the society.

While Brussels is preoccupied rather with butter-quotas, labeling of wines, it is seriously underestimating the immature systems within its EU borders. Democracies are not merely democratic because there are "free" elections (in contrast to the example of Belarus), but especially what the accountability of politicians is especially in between these elections. Brussels has become too complacent to deal with so-called internal national discussions. These streams could lead to a serious drift of ideologies, which might become uncontrollable. 

As Hungary will take over the EU presidency from Belgium in January, there is one interesting paradox in sight: A country, which would like to focus to bring minorities together, is currently led by a prime minister, who seems to be overly favourable to the wishes of the fascistoid Jobbik, having called for the sacking of  the rather successful National Theatre director Róbert Alföldi - just because Alföldi is on Jobbik's  'hit-list' for being a jew and a homosexual, and thus un-Hungarian. Not very flattering for the new presidency of the EU. 

If we continue sticking our heads into the sand, such an alarming tolerance of evil will easily thrive on and on.  As in Hungary also Slovakia will easily fall prone to a renewed wave of 'arianisation', hatred and intolerance to others. Although the 19th century is a long way behind us, these immature democracies remain a constant breeding ground for dangerous thinking.