The Slovak Government Council for Human Rights, Ethnic Minorities and Gender Equality is concerned about the election of right-wing candidate Marian Kotleba (People's Party-Our Slovakia/LSNS) as the governor of the Banska Bystrica region (BBSK).
Any demonstrations that celebrate or justify this result are worrying, as, according to the council, they downplay the danger of the penetration of extreme right figures in politics, reads the declaration approved by the council at its session Wednesday (18 December). The Council recalled that Kotleba has long been building his political capital via anti-Roma, anti-Jewish and homophobic rhetoric as well as via his open admiration of representatives of the war-time Slovak Republic (1939-45). It also called for the rigorous monitoring of BBSK under his leadership.
