A curious incident in parliament yesterday. One of the deputy Speakers of the National Council, Lubos Blaha, posted a short video of himself on Telegram.
Blaha is a prominent member of the largest party, Smer, the number 2 behind Prime Minister Robert Fico; and as representative of one of the coalition parties, also Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
The video has the heading “Autumn Cleaning.” I had to make some small adjustments, Blaha writes.
Accompanied by a Slovak pop song, we see him removing the flag of the European Union from the office and replacing it with a Slovak flag. He also takes down a portrait of President Zuzana Caputova and puts it in a cupboard. He then hangs a portrait of Che Guevara in its place. (He was a Marxist revolutionary who fought in the Cuban Revolution in the 1960’s).
Two parties of the opposition reacted: Slovakia, headed by former Prime Minister Igor Matovic, called Blaha ‘shameful‘. KDH, the Christian Democrat party, ‘strongly‘ condemned his actions and called them disparaging. Both parties are calling for a special session to take his title of Deputy Speaker away from him.
Blaha, meanwhile, responded at the end of the day to the furore, again on Telegram. In a long post, he said among other things:
“I understand they (KDH) were enraged that I hung a flag of the Slovak Republic in my office, because they hate Slovakia.”
He continued: “There is no obligation to hang the flag of the European Union in the office. Nor of President Caputova. (…) I am also a proud leftist and will never be ashamed of the symbols of the left. Che Guevara is a globally recognized symbol of the fight for freedom.”
I also put photos of my children there so I expect to hear from Progressive Slovakia because I am showing a family, he said. He concluded: “Dear colleagues, please realize that we do not only have freedom of speech, but we also won elections with our opinions. So wake up and stop behaving like the last fascists.”
A spokeswoman for KDH said the party fought against Communism and advocated membership of the European Union and other international organizations.
(TASR, Telegram)
