Although Marek Mikič spent a few years studying and working abroad, he never expected to leave his native Slovakia permanently. He had a group of close friends and a music festival to run in the eastern town of Košice.
But he changed his mind last September after the re-election of Robert Fico, a populist who promised he would stop military aid to Ukraine, promote conservative family values, and muzzle the courts that have been investigating high-level corruption cases tied to his allies.
“The election was the last straw for me,” said Mikič, a DJ and concert promoter who recently moved to Prague. “I’m not saying everything in the Czech Republic is ideal, but I would rather be here than back home.”
Like tens of thousands of other young progressive Slovaks, Mikič finds his country increasingly close-minded, corrupt and out of sync with the liberal west. Fico’s mix of nationalism, leftist populism and social conservatism has brought Slovakia closer to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Like Orbán, Fico spreads pro-Russian propaganda and tries to muzzle independent media.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But he changed his mind last September after the re-election of Robert Fico, a populist who promised he would stop military aid to Ukraine, promote conservative family values, and muzzle the courts that have been investigating high-level corruption cases tied to his allies.
The country of 5.5 million people has been haemorrhaging young elites for decades; according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 20% of university students leave to study abroad, compared with the EU’s average of just 4%.
Jakub, a 23-year-old student from Central Slovakia, moved to Prague last month to work as a flight attendant for the Czech airline SmartWings – the first step in fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot.
“I can’t control if my children turn out to be gay, or trans,” said the mother of two who had worked as a strategic communications expert for the previous Slovak government before moving to Prague.
Even Slovakia’s top security conference Globsec, which had in the past attracted speakers including Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Pope Francis and Emmanuel Macron, decided to move its venue to Prague this year.
It’s hard for young liberal Slovaks to return to such a suffocating atmosphere, said Daniela Hanušová, a film curator who left the country right after high school.
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