By Albin Sybera
New Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, who has stepped down as leader of the ruling coalition's centre-left Hlas party, pledged to unite the deeply divided country in his inauguration speech on Saturday.
Pellegrini’s inauguration came a month after populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, Pellegrini’s coalition partner and former colleague, was shot in an assassination attempt which was condemned by parties from across the divided political spectrum. Fears abound that the shooting will worsen divisions within politics and society.
Fico’s left-right cabinet has faced regular protests since it assumed power last autumn after it pursued several controversial bills, including one on the dismantling of the Special Prosecutor Office overseeing high-profile corruption cases and others proposing to restructure public broadcaster RTVS and label NGOs with foreign funding foreign agents.
Pellegrini also beat his rival, the conservative pro-Western diplomat Ivan Korcok, in the presidential election in early April after an aggressive second-round campaign in which he made baseless accusations against Korcok of allegedly planning to deploy Slovak troops in Ukraine.
“I am speaking to everyone in Slovakia with faith that they feel a firm part of the community of citizens of the Slovak republic. I am speaking to him so he knows that I want to be also his president,” Pellegrini declared in the opening lines of his inauguration speech, describing it as “the most important day of his life” and “an exceptional moment which is not just about me”.
“I have been pointing out for several years that Slovakia is divided by a high mental wall, from behind which two divided groups of society are shouting at each other,” Pellegrini described the state of Slovak society.
Pellegrini expressed conviction that what makes Slovaks, including the numerous Slovaks living abroad, “remain Slovaks in their heart” is what for him are “simple values” – “state, nation, family and humanity”.
“The president is a symbol of the land, representative of the people at home and in the world,” he said, recalling that the reason why he entered the presidential palace in Bratislava is that “two months ago historically the second-highest number of voters sent me to office”.
Pellegrini recalled that Ukrainians, who are sheltered in Slovakia and “in the spirit of our traditional hospitality were offered dinner, bed and assistance”, remind Slovaks that the “certainty of peace” is gone.
Local commentators described Pellegrini’s speech as “conservative,” lacking acknowledgement of Roma and sexual Slovak minorities, despite Pellegrini’s leftist pledges, which he reiterated several times, including recalling the “idea of socialism with a human face, whose death under the tracks of foreign tanks” in the Soviet-led invasion in 1968 Slovaks and Czechs rejected.
Pellegrini also acknowledged the way digitalisation has contributed to the divisions within Slovak society and between generations.
He also said the wall dividing the Slovak society “is now sprinkled with blood” in a clear allusion to Fico’s assassination attempt, though he avoided mentioning other shootings in recent years that rocked society and politics, including the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancé in 2018 and the gunning down of two young men in from the LGBTQ friendly bar in Bratislava in 2022 by a far right teen.
Pellegrini also recalled the 1944 Slovak National Uprising against Nazi and fascist authorities in which “side by side old and young, men and women, communists with civic and social democrats, Slovaks with many other nations, fought against occupiers”. He also referenced several figures in Slovak history, including saints Cyril and Methodius, 19 century evangelical and catholic writers who contributed to formulating modern Slovak grammar, and one of the founders of Czechoslovakia, Milan Rastislav Stefanik.
