Populists and propaganda: Electoral thriller in Slovakia | DW Reporter

For a time it looked as though the pro-Europe Progressive Slovakia party would win the parliamentary election, even on the election night itself. During the campaign, party leader Michal Simecka even had to defend himself against fake videos in which he allegedly called for a hike in beer prices.
As the evening progressed though, the tide turned, and Robert Fico's left-wing nationalist SMER party came through to win the majority. Fico had repeatedly questioned Slovak aid to Ukraine, and had criticized the European Union while seeking proximity to Russia. Apparently, that was what tipped the scales.
In her report, DW Brussels bureau chief Alexandra von Nahmen shows how strongly the election in Slovakia was influenced by pro-Russian disinformation, warning that other European countries should be prepared to counter similar strategies.
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#slovakia #fico #eu

[@CyborgZeta]

Misinformation becomes effective when it exploits existing doubts or divisions. Take the US, for example. It's very easy to turn Americans against each other by exploiting political/cultural/whatever divides over things like abortion, immigration/migrations, 2nd Amendment, etc. Those divides already exist; misinformation just takes advantage of them.

[@RDdggrd]

Disinformation, people are naive enough to believe anything that confirms their bias.

[@mr74marco61]

At 1:45 attacks support to American soldiers, At 1:54 takes a photo with a guy with a USA t-shirt, what a 🤡

[@severinsilmedin2588]

Post logic age

[@smrtdis]

Does not want to support a war doe not mean someone hates America. Lots of people love América in general and may not agree to a policy of that country. Come out of the rock where if you are not "with the war" you hate America.

[@severinsilmedin2588]

@@smrtdis let agressor win and weaken international law will lead to endless wars and loss of freedoms, but that you will not learn from russian propagandists. They spoke about peace and negotiations only because they are weak now, remember Prigozin, how deals with putin worked out for him. Fool me once...

[@centosto3327]

USA is not the problem, problem are people like Biden and other war mongers

[@AdamSloan2]

I'm from the UK. I visited Kosice during December last year. I recall seeing numerous political party posters near to the main street, Hlvana, with rude symbols drawn over them. Am I right to assume that the poster designers were promoting the pro-Russian candidate?

[@BestRanger22]

Yes, you are right.😢

[@michaelasch9849]

@@BestRanger22riadna tuposť. Tam šantili PS a spol.

[@rod9829]

Boomers ruining everything for everyone as per usual

[@jps0117]

I'm a Boomer. I didn't ruin nothin'.

[@tokarteam1]

People have short memory. The USSR was not a nice place to live. It’s crazy that people respond to an economic situation that is being felt WORLDWIDE regardless of what party rules and yet they think by voting extreme they’ll fix their problems. So short sighted and ignorant.

[@Okido24]

A drastic raise in beer prices 🍻 😂😂

[@hamish1309]

Shot himself in the foot, wondering if he got bribed as well.

[@universeslap]

​@@hamish1309If you watched the reportage, then you heard, that it was deepfake. Or are you playing dumb?!

[@songnianzhang366]

tell me why dw shut down the comments for Israel Palestine war? where is the speech freedom.

[@tonylinkich3464]

Love to Slovak from. SRB

[@iberiano-ls2rv]

Do you mean the same Serbia that committed war crimes in Kosovo and Bosnia? Genocidal Serbians.

[@bullerfnis1961]

Is a little bit ridiculous when he talks about democracy while leaning to Russia, I don’t think if he leans much more over to Russia, he’ll be able to pronounce the word democracy. But if he thinks, or they think that leaning towards Russia, they will become richer and better yes forgotten history.

[@felipe-vibor]

Or maybe you're wrong. Have you considered that?

[@bullerfnis1961]

@@felipe-vibor yes, I consider that and no!!!

[@eternal_ecstasy_77]

Everyone can say whatever bull💩 they want and that's why one rule is endlessly important and unconditionally must be followed: no country and no one is above the law - so easy, but unfortunately for some still too difficult.....

[@adnewworkneh4990]

This report is just undermining Slovakian people. low level report.

[@Kubilay-nx4ui]

Why you ban comments for israel news.What happened to your sense of freedom?

[@mabra-mabra]

ada pertanyaan terhadap keberadaan dari dua sistem transportasi itu. pertanyaanya, apakah dua sistem transportasi itu berguna untuk melengkapi dalam mengisi kebutuhan atau menjadi dua bentuk sistrm transportasi yang saling bertolak belakang dalam melengkapi kebutuhan??....

[@luci75d76]

Why DW close the message section in all videos related to Israel/Palestine war? Why DW is doing this ?

[@LukasMatejka-du5hb]

because they are pro-democracy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@strassenbahnfilmguy9306]

Another one bites the dust 😮

[@cawschwarzraben359]

Old farts miss the iron fist and freedoms of the Gustav Husak regime and its antecessors.

[@Ass_of_Amalek]

11:00 "we don't have a donor list, as is the case for other parties" - how is that supposed to be a good thing? all parties accept some form of donations, so if they have no donor list, that just means that they don't collect the data in order to avoid accountability.

[@fpxy00]

Its a translation issue, he ment on foregin donations. Also, marties can have different ways of financing such as membership subscriptions or goverment budget.

[@El.Duder-ino]

Fico is a natural born liar... As a Slovak citizen I would NEVER trust his words and promises. His party is full of people who have no problem to lie to anybody, especially those they see as strategically important. This is a person who was trained from his early age in 1980s in the Moscow's political university how to massage cognitive maps of the masses and tell them BS they want to hear. On the other hand the reality we've seen when he was in the lead was FULL of corruption and lies he's so much relying on. His party lives on because of mostly retired people and those who like to connect dots between past and present, however he's definitely not the future especially for the young people who r future of Slovakia.

[@michaelasch9849]

To znamená, že ho nepodporujú mimovládky... a to je výborné!

[@El.Duder-ino]

@@michaelasch9849 kdeze, ved to su iba sproste "prostitutky" spolu s novinarmi co sa ho pytaju neprijemne otazky😁 Velkeho Robertka nemusia zivit mimovladky a ani zapad, na ktory tak pred volbami populisticky kydal a za ktorym bude teraz po volbami chodit a prosikat o dotacie, ktore potom zo svojim kumpanmi rozkradne. Jeho zivia domaca mafia co tu ostala po Meciarovi a riadi si cele Slovensko. Osobnosti ako Jozef Brhel, Bastrnak, Imrece a dalsi plus stara dobra mafia Penta co sa zrodila na Moskovskej univerzite, na ktorej bol aj Robertko studovat politicke studie, alebo J&T a dalsie partie co si tahaju povrazkami na pozadi ako krstni otcovia. Oni si robia zapadny "American dream" na SVK, skoda ze len iba seba. Toto su tie "piliere" spolocnosti, z ktorych si treba brat priklad a podporovat ich kazde 4 roky pri volebnych urnach. Hlavne ich pocuvat a potom zvolit, aby mohli byt u korytka a robit to co poznaju nielen po 1989, ale este pred nim - mat cim vacsiu moc a vplyv. To su ti ukazkovi "kapitatlisti" a "osobnosti" naroda. Tymto zapadne mimovladky urcite netreba... im sa pekne podakuj za to co urobili zo SVK po 89 a ako polozili hospodarstvo na kolena svojim rozkradanim a dnes su to zazobane "osobnosti" a "excelencie".

[@Canariensis89]

DW want to present a newspaper as true, as real journalism, as objective, as in the right side and then interview a journalist or director(IDK the possition he holds) and first thing that say is "Russia is my enemy"

[@richardsingh5827]

Not the beer!

[@Melodic_Analysis]

So much for having pride in my slovak heritage

[@mourka01]

isn't the pro Slovakian guy who won?

[@Melodic_Analysis]

@@mourka01 the pro Russian Slovakian guy?

[@hamish1309]

Always be proud, the people have spoken and he wants peace talks, that can't be bad. It's the only way the war will end.

[@gikigill788]

​@@hamish1309Yup, Chamberlain was also under the same impression. How did that work out? 😊

[@bulthaosen1169]

@@Melodic_Analysis and being pro russian is against democracy? I thought democracy was freedom of choice. And not whatever EU says.

[@kawalier1]

Here in the Poland we've got beers for free sponsored by Mentzen from republican party.

[@tomasgajdos932]

The situation in Slovakia is indeed very sad. Nevertheless, I think that the video don't illustrate the whole picture, in particular why people are voting for this kind of candidates - an the reason is that pro-western Slovak politicains failed (several times) in past when it comes to corruption (arguably even bigger corruption cases than pro-russia politicains). This totally undermined the trust of people - last pro-western government we had also showed total incompetence - so people basically voted for someone who at least will be able to run the country regardless the direction....

[@betterpoliticsquetu]

dw is a german company germany stands with israel all dw vids on israel blocking comments

[@AlexPalco]

Doe one asked Slovaks that Ukraine is also brother of Slovakia? It is crazy how Slovaks allowed to mislead them while Ukrainians are defending not only themselves in the unprovoked war that russian federation started but Europe and its virtues.

[@LukasMatejka-du5hb]

ukraine war was 100% provoked by USA(Joe Biden and his son, more specifically)...... it all started when Bidens started meddling with ukranian politics back in 2014..... read up on it, before you start spreading brain-farts in comment sections

[@mabra-mabra]

Wilayah -wilayah kemanusiaan yang saat ini lebih dulu menerima itu, pasti sangat paham selajutnya untuk memberi. Tentunya dengan tambahan ucapan dan lain lain. Agar mengerti setiap kemanusiaan itu, bahwa Pengetahuan itu sendiri berjuang untuk menyampaikan kepada setiap kemanusiaan itu.

[@mabra-mabra]

Wilayah -wilayah kemanusiaan yang saat ini lebih dulu menerima itu, pasti sangat paham selajutnya untuk memberi. Tentunya dengan tambahan ucapan dan lain lain.. Yang tersampaikan ini, bukti Pengetahuan itu dihalangi ....dan berjuang untuk melewatinya

[@nublex]

whatever DW...

[@lubomirmazal9693]

…..if someone says “ we need to attend to problems in Slovakia instead of supporting Ukraine….. “ he must be Russian troll. So are all US and EU politicians that are giving preference to Israel today…. Or no?

[@vladnickul]

To accept 500€ bribe to basically sell your soul and your kids future. IT IS PATHETIC! Even more so then the beer tax :))

[@mabra-mabra]

kepragmatismean kapitalis biadap itu terbukti telah menyeret setiap asset dari demokrasi itu, untuk dibawa kedalam lumpur kebiadapannya melalui cara berbohong, menipu serta memanipulasi apapun demi memuaskan nafsu biadap kebinatangannya sendiri.

[@isasaleh1508]

The Russians must be very good in mind control. They have also convinced the the continents of Africa South America Most of Asia and some European countries to disagree with NATO on Ukrain. Even FIFA has lifted the ban on the Russians and from your assessment they may win more support from other EU nations. It must be mind control and it has worked on most of the world and I think he soon use it on Uncle Sam.

[@ManderSeis]

Most people are just spineless opportunists who don't care about something that happens half a world away

[@neilnelson7603]

Russia the big brother of the world 😂😂😂😂

[@Ashkhay]

😂

[@user-cl1wv9bn8o]

😂😂😂

[@2gointruth]

“Many false prophets will arise,"

[@williamdrijver4141]

DW News never explains what causes populism....

[@mabra-mabra]

Jika menurunkan biaya peŕjalanan transporrasi udara, maka dampaknya memukul transportasi berbasis darat untuk jarak tempuh yang tertenru.begitulah cara sederhana untuk melihat konsumen itu telah diatur oleh uang dan kemudahan.

[@chetshrestha2691]

Why is your comment disabled in Israel Gaza war news?

[@1AshawniSeniorGazamuzik]

Us good support for isreal 0:37 🔥🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥🙏🙏🙏

[@mabra-mabra]

Pejuang diwilayah Asia tenggara, khususnya para pejuang di Myanmar didalam mendirikan kemerdekaannya terhadap kebiadaban junta yang di lindungi habitat iblis -iblis biadap itu. Hendaknya daptt melakukan tindakan langsung yang mengarah ke dalam daratan habitat iblis lintah parasit biadap itu. Tindakan itu dapat memperlemah kebebasan berkehendak dari junta militer itu sendiri.

[@mabra-mabra]

1994 bagaimana ngototnya kapitalis utara memaksa wilayah timur yang dipimpin seorang kaisar untuk tunduk dengan transaksi 'kesimbangan'!... 1979 november, phalevi berganti dengan khomeini!.. umumnya monarki tidak pernah tunduk terhadap kepragmatismean kapitalis.

[@NgwekyaiPhyu]

9:10:2023(3:20) မဂ်လာပါ Dwအဖွဲ့သားအားလုံး (တရားပိုင်ရှင် သာသနာတော်မြတ်အတွင်း) ရဟန်းတော်မြတ်တစ်ပါးကိုသင်ဖူးဖူချင်လားထိုရဟန်းတော်မြတ်၏(ဉာဏ်တော်မြတ်သည်)အပါယ်၄ဘုံငရဲ၈ထပ်ကိုမြင်တော်မူ၏ မှတ်တမ်းတင်ထားပါ

[@mabra-mabra]

ditahun 1981 sampai dengan akhir 80an penyelikan dan persidangan tentang mengapa terjadi konflik yang memalukan november 1979 terjadi!...tetapi anehnya seluruh penyelidikan dan persidangan itu bersifat ambigu, dengan memeriksa kepada seriap yang tidak memiliki sangkutan sama sekali!!....happy b'day yang ke 98 tahun kepada pedagang kacang itu!! 58 nyawa tentranya korban dari sebuah sandiwara.

[@mabra-mabra]

Karena para perjuang dari Rakyat Ukraina saat ini telah kembali kedalam kekuatan dari kesadarannya sendiri dalam mengembalikan seluruh kedaulatan yang telah diinjak-injak oleh habitat iblis pengecut biadap itu. Para pejuang dari Amerika latin tentu sangat termotivasi untuk menolong perjuangan Rakyat Ukraina itu.

[@mabra-mabra]

kesalapahaman atas informasi adalah judul dari lagu yang diciptakan oleh penyanyinya sendiri yaitu kapitalis babi biadap, yang berguna menggangu komunikasi dari seriap kemanusiaan itu !.. jadi aneh, menuduh kemanusiaan yang telah memiliki itu!! lihatlah itu...bagaimana kapitalis biadap yang selalu menyesatkan informasi itu, seperti pengemis yang meminta perhatian dengan mencoba sebagai artis pembuka konser dari pegelaran konser utama yang ditujukan bagi setiap kemanusiaan.

[@mabra-mabra]

artinya pemilik uang itu dapat berguna untuk mengubah permainannya, bukankah begitu??...mungkin itu bukan kesalapahaman, tetapi mungkin memungkiri yang telah dipahami. agar setiap kemaanusian tidak keliru. yang tersampaikan bukan untuk menjawab didalam konten. karena bagaimanapun pihak kebiadapan akan terus mengikuti Pengehetahuan untuk membingungkan kemanusiaan.

[@mabra-mabra]

Wilayah Asia selatan dan Tengah, ada baiknya bertindak lebih dulu terhadap potensi hal yang sangat menguntungkan itu. Mengapa seperti itu??...jika bersedia mendengarkan ular biadap itu, maka kebiadaban lah yang mendahului!! yang mengakibatkan kerugian kepada setiap kemanusiaan itu. Belajarlah dari apa yang terjadi, dikedua wilayah kemanusiaan didaerah 'middle east' itu. Sehingga habitat iblis-iblis beserta kebiadapan binatang dari utara itu, dapat tersisihkan. Yang tersampaikan tidak terkait apapun dengan konten itu. Begitu juga untuk selajutnya.......(alasan mengapa memilih konten itu, 1. Durasi untuk dibaca setiap kemanusiaan , cukup tersedia) 2. Tidak tersedia ruang bersuara didalam konten yang terbaru, juga umumnya konten yang tersedia selalu patuh terhadap kehendak kaum binatang korup yang biadap dari Utara)

[@michaelthomas5433]

Well lets support Hungary getting that Slovak territory it wants and see if Russia will protect Slovakia.

[@VERCINGET0RIX]

Why, because they dont want to keep sending weapons and money to ukraine? Because theyd rather be neutral and call for peace negotiations? You're seriously a deranged individual.

[@miroz5824]

I think HU would have already been claiming Slovak southern territories would Russia have suceeded in current war within days... Yet Fico and the likes of him see Orban as their inspiration... I call that treason...

[@mabra-mabra]

kepada penanggungjawab mutlak wilayah itu,. lindungi Rakyat dari kedua wilayah itu dengan penuh tanggung-jawab. kejar kelompok yang telah dibayar oleh persekutuan binatang biadap untuk mencoba mengjhacurkan kehidupan Rakyat di kedua wilayah itu. hindari bantuan dari persekutuan tersembunyi para binatang biadap itu. biarkan

[@aanfachrianto]

Share iswiyanto

[@rod9829]

Okay, leave nato, the eu, and the “west”

[@nedludd7622]

NATO should have been disbanded when the Wall fell.

[@david-bd6td]

NATO expansion is the root cause ...😢

[@miroz5824]

Even the winning party wanting to stop any help to UA has no intention in doing that. They are well aware they need the protection, support and money above all... The winning party is just opportunistic, they would be saying whatever it takes to win the election.

[@TheLivirus]

What does it mean to be populist in a democracy? Sounds like a winner.

[@jps0117]

It means appealing to emotion at the expense of reason. It's done on both the right and the left.

[@TheLivirus]

@@jps0117 Sounds like pretty much every politician ever.

[@miroz5824]

It means big promises zero actual measures.

[@goodvibes9611]

@@miroz5824exactly!

[@artiartibald9431]

Bravo

[@joyfulanimations2006]

Denník N " the real newspaper" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 financed by oligarchs from ESET.

[@zolombox1779]

How come people can't comment on Israel news? How very antisemetic of you.

[@mahiru20ten]

They know that the comment section would be a shitshow to moderate

[@ErmiasSahilu]

You are always saying pro Rousia when you’re not like to support the ukiren war,be democratic.

[@fabiss23]

No one supports the war but Putin and his cronies. If you want the war to stop you should tell Putin to get out of Ukraine.

[@iberiano-ls2rv]

Slovakia and Hungary should exit the EU. NO MORE EU money for these countries ,no more free movement for its citizens. Of course they can always join the Russian mafia and criminal state.

[@miroz5824]

There is quite a difference between state of democracy in Slovakia and Hungary (for now). But Fico and the likes of him see Orban as their inspiration, so maybe in 4 years, your comment will be valid...

[@iberiano-ls2rv]

@@miroz5824excellent, if these states leave the EU in four years it will be better that to have them forever. Its like having the troyan horse inside.

[@miroz5824]

@@iberiano-ls2rv Your original comment was about EU money, all of a sudden you are reffering to leaving EU? Fico would never do that, he is all too keen on that sweet EU money.

[@iberiano-ls2rv]

@@miroz5824 true... and unfortunately there are not mechanisms to kick these two countries out. Many of us in the EU are disgust about paying taxes and give it to these pro- Russian brainwashed ZZOMBIES.

[@salenddeo9099]

God bless Ukrainian Soldiers 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦❤

[@Alpha-qh4sb]

😂😂😂😂

[@mavrom4537]

all ok .. I receve regularly all UKR videos on rus, made as google ads in youtube. no problem

[@justinkey3181]

My family is rich I had a private tutor from Switzerland that taught me Latin, and Greek Mythology, and French, among many other subjects. If you're family isn't rich and your parents couldn't afford a private tutor to teach you Latin, and French, please feel free to inform the HR lady where you work that you are going to take a day off PTO day, to go to your former high school to confront them about how your high school up until the 1960's taught Latin, and foreign languages French, German, and Spanish for free. And that you arent rich enough, like Justin Key's parents are to pay for your kids to learn these languages and you want to know why, you were lied to when you went to for example Hayward High School in 2010, and the teachers never told you that they stopped teaching this for free and unless you're rich, you're out of luck today. You are semi illiterate if you don't know Latin. Latin is the root of the English language. Tell your school the reason Latin is important is because if you were taught Latin like the school did in the 1960's, you wouldn't have to look up the definition of a word in a Dictionary, everytime you encountered a word you don't understand. That would have made your life so much easier.

[@mellowInventor]

Yeah, you are rich or you're young, you think most people can just get PTO approved day-of. lol

[@joyfulanimations2006]

I really didn't expected such a biased report from DW.

[@GwynBleys]

ROFL if people dont want to follow self-destructive EU policies its not democracy anymore? HAHAHAHAHA

[@ZartabAhmed8292]

I stand with Palestine

[@MrSjengster]

This is what happens with 3rd world countries. Yes Slowakia is 3rd world country within the EU.

[@GwynBleys]

You have no idea what 3rd world means ROFL!! Slovakia is 2nd world. The term came to life after the WW2, pro western countries became 1st world, pro Russian 2nd world and everyone else is 3rd world.

[@IrenESorius]

Please leave EU and NATO,, 🙏

[@jps0117]

Or be kicked out.

[@VERCINGET0RIX]

You warmongers are unhinged.

[@samsungtap4183]

DW talking about disinformation....that's a laugh ?

[@ulliburwood4706]

It's hard to believe that Slovakia has such a short memory. Thr EU paid for their prosperity, like for Hungary. The eu should cut those countries lose. Bye bye join Russia

[@user-oe2tt1hh8r]

It ain't democratic if it doesn't serve the West agenda...👍

[@zdravkojasovic9397]

Congratulations mr.Fico, You vill save Slovakia of NATO and EU

[@miroz5824]

No he won't, he is just saying whatever it takes to win the election. Few years ago, he was claiming tha Slovakia belongs to the 'core of EU' whatever that means.

[@liamp.8826]

Slovakians made the RIGHT decision! He will protect your country from diversity, keep you safe and prevent an economic collapse!

[@Leitosssssss]

Yeah, meanwhile millions of Slovaks make other countries more diverse because voting for this criminal group stole another 10 years of our future while we already lost at least 15 with them in the past. Keeping us safe by supporting corrupted oligarchs, killing investigative journalist and taking money from Russia to help them end up at our borders while Russia waged more wars in the last few years than anyone else around us in history together. Talking about economy is a joke as you cannot even imagine how much money this party stole from our citizens in their 12 years rule because it is not a normal number for the most democratic countries. They have exceptional results in a very dark negative way.

[@Riconald]

Go Russia ❤❤❤❤