Democracy Digest: Slovak President Threatens to Sue Fico as Political Tensions Rise

Meanwhile, President Caputova, the most trusted Slovak politician, does not often talk about how often she and her daughters receive various threats, including death threats. Yet earlier this week, she posted on social media that she is prepared to take legal action against Smer leader and former PM Robert Fico. After she had announced her decision to name a technocratic government, Fico and his party colleagues began accusing her of mounting a "progressive coup", and of being an American agent and a creature of George Soros, a Hungarian-born US financier often the target of antisemitic attacks by right-wing politicians in the region. Smer also smeared Odor with the same charges. Fico's Smer party is leading the polls in the run-up to the September election, and Fico himself is one of the most trusted politicians in the country. As such, he has a huge influence on people and many probably believe what he has repeatedly claimed about the president. Last year, Slovakia's Constitutional Court ruled that the pro-Russian Smer MP Lubos Blaha cannot continue to spread lies about the president. By May 15, the president should announce whether she will run for re-election in the 2024 presidential vote.

Hungarian Defense Forces deputy commander Lt. Gen. Gabor Borondi (l) welcomed to US Army Garrison headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, on 10 February, 2019, with honor guard. Photo: DVIDS New Hungarian defence chief puts military boot in mouth; Fidesz voters in parallel reality

Hungary's new chief of defence staff, Gabor Borondi, managed to make the headlines this week with some controversial statements in his first week in the job since being appointed. Borondi told a parliamentary hearing that, "Hungary should return to the Scythian way of thinking and...