Anti-Roma Rhetoric Under Scrutiny Before Slovak Election

Shortly after the verdict, former Prime Minister Robert Fico leapt to Mazurek's defence in a Facebook video.

"Milan Mazurek only said what nearly a whole nation thinks," said Fico, leader of the governing SMER-SD party. "If you execute someone for truth, you will turn him into a national hero. Should we be afraid to say that part of the Roma people abuse the social system?"

Much to the country's surprise, the Facebook video blew up in Fico's face. On December 5, news broke that he had been charged with inciting racial hate and approval of a crime.

Fico called the charge "alarming" and said he had only expressed his private opinion. His party colleagues branded the indictment a "witch hunt".

"If he's going to be indicted, then so should we, because we agree with him," a group of SMER-SD lawmakers said in a statement during a news conference in parliament.

As the controversy smoulders ahead of a general election in February, progressives hope the examples of Fico and Mazurek will signal a change in the limits of what is acceptable in Slovak political discourse.

But in a country where some populist politicians still see "Roma bashing" as a vote winner, rights advocates fear there may be a long way to go in stomping out hate speech.

A man walks along near a pile of trash in a marginalised Roma settlement in Trebisov, Slovakia. Photo: Miroslava German Sirotnikova/BIRN

'Making a public enemy'

Whipping up anti-Roma sentiment during political campaigns has long been a favourite "sport" in Slovak politics, analysts say.

Such tactics were especially popular in the wild 1990s after the fall of communism, and then again in the 2010s before Europe's migrant crisis gave populists and nationalists a new...