Populists and propaganda: Electoral thriller in Slovakia

DW (English)

The Slovakian election campaign was turbulent, and featured pro-Russian propaganda, fake news, and anti-Europe slogans.

Transcript

00:00 A populist candidate whose pro-Russian messaging helps win an election, while liberal pro-European

00:12 candidates lose out.

00:14 Dubious political players spreading Kremlin propaganda with impunity and Russian agents

00:20 handing out bribes.

00:22 A real-life political thriller is being played out in Slovakia.

00:28 The country on the edge of the EU has elected a new parliament after a turbulent and polarizing

00:33 campaign in which pro-Russian propaganda played a major role.

00:38 What does it mean for the rest of Europe and for elections in other EU countries?

00:43 And why does it seem so easy for Russia to undermine Europe's confidence in democracy?

00:48 This is Branov, not Toplu, a small town in eastern Slovakia.

01:07 It's just an hour's drive from the border with Ukraine, where Russia is waging its war.

01:14 Nowhere has the Slovakian election been fought more fiercely than in provinces like this.

01:19 Today, the extreme right Republika Party is holding a rally.

01:23 They hand out chocolate to the public along with lots of anti-Western propaganda.

01:29 Milan Mazurek, a senior party lawmaker, rails against the European Union, NATO and the Americans.

01:37 Pensioners can't afford to heat their apartments.

01:40 Young families are fleeing abroad because they can't make a living here.

01:43 And we're feeding American soldiers.

01:47 It is a message that hits home.

01:49 Many here are disappointed with politicians in Bratislava and Brussels.

01:53 They complain about rising food and energy prices and they question Western support for

01:59 Ukraine.

02:00 Both sides are to blame for the war.

02:04 That's what I think.

02:05 Both sides.

02:06 But the media only tells us one part.

02:09 You only publish what suits you.

02:12 This war will end eventually.

02:14 I'm not afraid of Russia.

02:16 Opinions like these are no surprise to Mikaela Ruzickova.

02:20 She runs the InfoSecurity project which aims to detect and expose Russian disinformation

02:26 in Slovakia.

02:27 Our disinformation space started to form in like 2014 because of the Crimea crisis, you

02:35 know, the annexation of Crimea.

02:37 And nowadays it is really huge.

02:40 It is big and complex.

02:42 There are many actors.

02:43 It is consisted of, you know, the alternative media which are just the websites that are

02:50 spreading false narratives, disinformation, pro-Russian propaganda mainly.

02:55 Mikaela Ruzickova says there are thousands of Facebook pages spreading pro-Russian narratives.

03:02 There are also nearly 300 websites that pose as online news outlets.

03:07 She shows us the page of Hlavne Sprave, a popular conservative portal that pretends

03:13 to publish news.

03:15 Last year Hlavne Sprave made headlines.

03:18 One of its authors was secretly filmed talking to a Russian intelligence officer.

03:23 The video shows him accepting a bribe in return for allegedly spreading Russian propaganda.

03:29 The man was sentenced to a fine and probation and the website was blocked but only temporarily.

03:35 We want to talk to those responsible so we go to the address listed for the publisher.

03:43 But there is nobody there.

03:45 Neighbors say it's long been abandoned.

03:48 No one responds to our inquiries and the phone number given on the site isn't working.

03:59 Instead we visit Dziennik N, the real newspaper that published the video of the bribe.

04:04 Its editor in chief Matus Kostolny says the fact that the affair had no real consequences

04:11 shows how vulnerable Slovakia is to outside interference.

04:17 It shows that even the courts in Slovakia don't understand the situation.

04:20 There is a special war going on in Slovakia and Russians are fighting that war.

04:27 For me and for the country, Russia is the enemy.

04:31 They are not able to understand and this is very serious.

04:35 Pro-Russian propaganda has also been spread by prominent politicians.

04:40 While campaigning, they've regularly repeated slogans usually heard from the Kremlin.

04:45 Among them is Robert Fico.

04:48 The leader of the left-wing nationalist party SMER spoke out against arms deliveries to

04:53 Ukraine and against further sanctions on Russia.

04:57 At a press conference shortly before the election, we asked him this.

05:01 Why are you promoting Russian propaganda?

05:04 Do you think it makes you popular?

05:09 Why don't you give us the right to have our own opinion about the war in Ukraine?

05:14 We are not obliged to repeat the rhetoric of the United States of America or Western

05:18 Europe.

05:21 Fico did well with this message during the campaign, especially in towns and villages

05:26 away from the capital, where the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine are particularly

05:33 noticeable.

05:37 The Ukrainians have money and they have no problem buying anything.

05:41 Slovaks have trouble buying honey because they can't afford it.

05:44 The Ukrainians come and collect a lot of money.

05:47 Natalia Hromoshak often hears false claims and prejudice in Slovakia.

05:52 The Ukrainian came here fleeing the war.

05:55 We meet her in a market in the city of Kosice.

05:58 The country has taken in more than 100,000 Ukrainians, but many here don't believe that

06:04 Ukraine is the victim.

06:08 The propaganda certainly works.

06:10 They don't know much about Ukraine, but that propaganda works.

06:15 They believe Russia is the older brother.

06:20 Mikaela Ruzickova and the InfoSecurity platform are trying to work out why pro-Russian disinformation

06:27 is taking hold in Slovakia.

06:30 There is a common history with the Russian Federation, of course with the Soviet Union,

06:36 and the Kremlin is pushing this narrative even today that Russia is our Slavic brother.

06:44 And it's really working because people have this memory of the common history with the

06:50 Soviet Union.

06:51 They are looking at it as some kind of golden era.

06:55 This is especially true for older Slovaks who look back fondly on those times and feel

07:00 disillusioned about life in the European Union.

07:04 Meanwhile, Moscow's embassy in Bratislava is one of the EU's most active when it comes

07:10 to spreading anti-Western messaging.

07:13 So far, there is no evidence of direct Russian interference in Slovakian elections.

07:19 But many liberal politicians are being targeted by disinformation.

07:23 This is the headquarters of Progressive Slovakia, a liberal pro-European party.

07:29 Its candidate has faced especially tough campaign attacks, including this deepfake video which

07:35 made him appear to announce a massive rise in beer prices.

07:43 The drastic increase in beer prices will be one of the first things a government led by

07:46 us will implement.

07:51 It was a clumsy fake, but Mihal Šimečka of Progressive Slovakia takes the issue seriously.

07:57 What would you do to counter this campaign?

08:01 What we do, well, we try to obviously refute that which is an obvious lie, an obvious slur

08:06 against our party.

08:08 But most importantly, we're trying to run a positive campaign.

08:12 From the very start, we're trying to talk about the kind of positive vision for the

08:17 country that we envisage in our manifesto.

08:22 When election day finally arrives, voters wait in long lines to cast their ballots.

08:28 Many in Bratislava seem to be worried about the direction in which their country is heading.

08:33 We know that there are various hybrid operations going on in Slovakia thanks to foreign influences.

08:41 Even though we have the freedom to vote, it's clear we are also quite influenced by these

08:45 manipulations.

08:50 The last few years have shown that democracy isn't as secure as we thought.

08:55 Election night at party headquarters, there is an anxious wait for results.

09:00 Michal Simečka's liberals are a young party, but in the final campaign sprint, they managed

09:05 to position themselves as favourites, including with clear commitments to Ukraine.

09:10 Would you say that your victory would be a blow to Putin?

09:14 Well, first of all, who needs to deal a blow to Putin is Ukraine and its army, and of course

09:23 the supporters of Ukraine, including Slovakia, and that's regardless of how this election

09:27 plays out.

09:28 Once polls close, the first projections are a release.

09:32 The mood here is good, the liberals are in fact ahead, but Martin Hojcik, who represents

09:37 the party in the European Parliament, remains cautious.

09:42 This is tight, it looks positive, but it's still only exit polls, so we'll have to see

09:48 the final results, but it's also very humbling, I have to say, after months and months of

09:53 work and campaign which was sadly also quite, I don't want to say dominated, but quite polluted

10:02 by lots of misinformation and essentially a hybrid war by third parties.

10:08 Meanwhile at SMER party headquarters, populist candidate Robert Fitzo isn't speaking to the

10:14 media.

10:15 The projections aren't what he hoped for.

10:18 But as the night goes on, things take a turn.

10:21 As more votes are counted, it becomes clear that Fizo's strategy will win him the election.

10:36 The next day he appears triumphant before the press.

10:40 He announces what lies ahead, including talks on forming a government.

10:44 When asked about the war in Ukraine, Fizo says he wants peace talks and that Slovaks

10:49 have bigger problems than Ukraine.

10:53 Your critics could assume that the victory is a win for Vladimir Putin.

11:01 No one is directing us from the outside.

11:03 We don't have a donor list, as is the case with other parties.

11:07 No one's coming here to tell us what we should or shouldn't do.

11:11 So please respect us for disagreeing on some things.

11:14 After all, that's the essence of democracy.

11:19 Fizo's victory could have far-reaching consequences, including for Ukraine in EU solidarity.

11:26 At a conference in Bratislava, we asked disinformation expert Mikaela Ruzickova about upcoming elections

11:32 in Poland and Bulgaria and next year's European elections.

11:37 Will they see similar disinformation campaigns?

11:40 During the discussions with our colleagues, we really see some similar trends.

11:46 The other countries are also struggling with gaining public trust in the institutions,

11:52 as some actors, like also politicians, but the alternative media and social media actors

11:58 as well, are continuously undermining this trust.

12:03 The political situation in Slovakia shows the consequences of a long-term disinformation

12:08 campaign.

12:09 Experts say Russian efforts to manipulate democracies will continue and even increase.

12:15 They'll keep affecting European nations unless the West takes action.

12:20 [MUSIC]

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