Far-Right Slovak Politician Wins Regional Election
The regional election was one of eight across the country, which solidified Prime Minister Robert Fico’s left-leaning Smer party as the country’s strongest, taking top government seats in six out of eight regions. But Mr. Kotleba’s victory against a Smer-backed candidate stood out as it marked the first time his nationalist and far-right People’s Party-Our Slovakia, known as LSNS, won a regional or national government post.
Mr. Kotleba used to head the extremist Slovak Togetherness-National Party, which organized rallies against Romas, a large and underprivileged Slovak minority, and was banned by the country’s top court in 2006 for fomenting national hatred and intolerance. Both parties have shown sympathy for the Slovak Nazi client state, which ruled the Slovak Republic during World War II.
Mr. Kotleba and other members of the LSNS have often publicly worn uniforms styled after the militia guards of the client state, and the party’s logo closely resembles the flag of the ruling party during Slovakia’s Nazi era.
Nationalist political rhetoric has resonated with some Slovak voters since the collapse of communism in 1989 and the peaceful breakup in 1993 of Czechoslovakia, a federation of the Czech and Slovak republics. In neighboring Hungary, the far-right Jobbik party has been in Parliament since 2010.