Contract Killing Looms Over Slovakia’s Election
The murder of a journalist and his girlfriend two years ago is weighing on the governing party and has made the vote unpredictable.
Photographer: Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images
Two years ago, Slovakia was a steady member of the European mainstream and a pro-Brussels leadership in stark contrast to its neighbors. Then the brazen contract killing of a reporter investigating political ties to organized crime sparked the biggest protests in decades and brought down long-serving populist Robert Fico.
Slovakia now heads into its most unpredictable election in recent memory with corruption the dominant theme, something that’s one all too familiar in former communist Europe and even Malta nowadays. The question is whether Fico’s party, in government for 12 of the past 14 years, will pay the price.