DISINFORMATION

Liberal cancer and invincible Russia. Pro-Russian actors in Slovakia are working at full speed

Infosecurity.sk presents an overview of disinformation trends that have been on the rise in the last two weeks:

• The governing coalition and its associates continue their attacks on liberalism and progressivism. They have succeeded in vulgarising the terms and are gradually creating an internal enemy or future scapegoat for their audience. These efforts culminated in the Prime Minister's rhetoric that liberal ideology is a cancer harming Slovakia.
• Efforts to legitimise Russia's aggression in Ukraine are also being revitalised. The vast majority of the narratives are published by representatives of the ruling coalition, who continue to make false calls for peace. They continue to set the interests of Slovakia and the West against each other.
• Certain actors even claim that the West is waging war against Slovakia. Some of the manipulators call for good relations with Russia and call for pan-Slavic solidarity. These words have a bitter aftertaste, especially after the Russian attack on the children's hospital on 8 July 2024.
• The disinformation ecosystem in Slovakia is not at all pleased with developments in the European Union (EU). The election of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission and of Kaja Kallas as EU High Representative for Foreign Policy were described as sealing the EU's irrelevance and warmongering.

The bogeyman of liberal cancer

The last two weeks in the Slovak information space have confirmed the forecast of the previous report. The central line of attacks and problematic narratives has been the label of progressivism or liberalism. A series of ongoing efforts to create an internal enemy of society culminated in a speech by Prime Minister Robert Fico during celebrations at Devín Castle.

In his speech, Fico called for a dam to be built against "senseless progressive and liberal ideologies", which, according to the prime minister, are spreading like a "cancer" and "harming" Slovakia. These words were spoken less than two months after the assassination attempt and followed the rhetoric that the representatives of the ruling coalition had so far been using against the political opposition and the media. Behind the calls for reconciliation in society, there was a further spread of hatred and the painting of targets on the backs of artificially created enemies of society.

Erik Kaliňák (MEP for SMER-SSD) also joined the call and in his post, following the example of his chairman, accused progressive ideologies of the decay of society and statehood. Ľuboš Blaha (also an MEP for SMER-SSD) used the term "progressive extremism". This only points to the fact that these labels used by government representatives are nothing more than mental shortcuts and scarecrows. It is through such vacuous (or vulgarised) labels that they create an internal enemy and possibly a future scapegoat.

Similarly, the representatives of the ruling coalition used the decision by which the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional only some of the changes in the amendment to the Criminal Code. The rest, including the abolition of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, was approved. In his speech, Prime Minister Fico demanded an apology from the "hateful opposition", "anti-government media" and NGOs "for expressions of hatred and organising inflammatory public protests". Fico and others are trying to discredit standard democratic protests with similar rhetoric.

Ľuboš Blaha also joined in again, and in his post on the Telegram he returned to accusing the opposition and the liberal media of spreading hatred and bigotry against people who are then supposed to turn into assassins. In doing so, he reiterated the enriched narratives that are manipulatively contributing to the further polarisation of society into two political camps. The post was also shared on the official SMER-SSD Facebook page. Eduard Chmelár and Tomáš Taraba (SNS) followed a similar rhetoric. The Prime Minister's advisor reiterated that the opposition was meant to destroy social peace, and the Minister of the Environment reiterated the spread of hatred.

Richard Glück (SMER-SSD)also linked the Constitutional Court's decision to the assassination attempt on the prime minister and again accused the so-called liberals of spreading hatred and radicalizing citizens. The latter was supposed to have happened through the media, NGO activities and opposition protests, which the ruling coalition has long tried to portray as undemocratic. The pro-government media outlet Ereport uncritically picked up on his statement . Such rhetoric comes mainly to silence, or at least discredit in the eyes of the population, voices that are critical of the governing coalition.

This is no different in the case of statements that uniformly label the opposition, regardless of ideological reality, with the terms liberalism or progressivism. Such methods not only enable the image of the enemy to be constructed, but also facilitate a rhetoric full of fictitious accusations and manipulations. This is well illustrated by Zuzana Plevíková's post, which was also shared on the official SMER-SSD Facebook page. In it, the MP operates with accusations of social lynching, witch hunts and totalitarianism during the pandemic and war in Ukraine. She falsely casts the representatives of the current ruling coalition in the role of martyrs who in the past were supposed to face an unjust conspiracy of the opposition and the media. György Gyimesi, a former MP and current member of the Alliance-Szövetség party, has chosen a similar narrative.

Milan Uhrík, chair of the far-right Republika movement, accuses the so-called progressive camp of militarisation. He calls"uncompromising progressive ideology" a threat to society. Uhrík said this in response to a poll which showed that voters of democratic opposition parties would be more willing to defend their homeland in the event of an attack on Slovakia than nationalist parties.

The myth of invincible Russia

The bulk of actors have returned to the tried and tested rhetoric that builds on attacks on the West and seeks to legitimise Russian aggression in Ukraine. In addition to the 'traditional' rejection of aid to Ukraine or the threat of Slovakia being dragged into the war, there has also been a renewed praise for Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. Calls for peace, which are often manipulatively set in opposition to demonised liberalism, are also being revived.

Eduard Chmelár, an advisor to prime minister Robert Fico, returned to the attacks on the EU and the West, which he once again accused of militancy and scared of the inevitable arrival of a global war. The latter is supposed to be the result of the short-sightedness of Western leaders, who are unaware of Russia's so-called invincibility.

Similar rhetoric was chosen by Ľuboš Blaha (SMER-SSD), who in his post on the Telegram said that the warmongers are losing support and the West is "losing the war against Russia". In his post, which was also shared on Facebook by the official SMER-SSD page, he conspired about the end of the "globalist project of progressive liberalism", which George Soros is supposed to be behind. In his rhetoric, Blaha links several bogeymen, even trying to blame Ukraine again - this time for the bombing of women and children in Crimea.

In this way, Blaha seeks to legitimise Russian aggression and, by using similar rhetoric, once again pits Slovakia and the West against each other. As he writes in another article, the West is supposed to wage war against us. In another, Blaha boasts about how he does not believe Western war propaganda. He describes the election of Kaja Kallas as the EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy as 'a spit in the face of all those in Europe who want peace'. He goes on to downplay the accusations of Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children, describing them as false and unfounded. And it turns the audience's attention once again to Ukraine's 2014 killing of children in the Donbas. Without evidence and through manipulation - this is the modus operandi of the actors who actively adopt the narratives of Russian propaganda and at the end of their posts call not only for peace, but also for "normal friendly relations" with Russia.

Eduard Chmelár, in another post, devoted a few lines to the well-established topic of the defence agreement (DCA) between Slovakia and the USA. He once again described it as a threat to Slovakia's security and fictionalized that thanks to the DCA and nuclear weapons, Slovakia could become a target. As usual, he forgot an important fact - Slovakia is under threat because of Russian aggression, not because of its alliance with the West. But it is precisely this equation that Chmelár (and others) are trying to manipulatively turn on its head.

In the article, which we analyse in more detail below, Chmelár attacked president Peter Pellegrini. Chmelár did so because of president's statement from his official visit to Poland, during which he said that the Russian attack on Ukraine was unprovoked. He also pledged support for Ukraine. This did not go down well with Milan Uhrik, the chairman of the far-right Republika party, who also criticised Pellegrini in the video for electing Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. He also used manipulative techniques in doing so - in particular, he reverted to scaremongering about liberal ideology and refusing any aid to Ukraine.

In this context, the disinformation website Bádateľ.net also published a post - it described every Euro of aid to Ukraine as "stolen from a Slovak child, pensioner, worker or patient". Another post likened Ukraine to a concentration camp. The website thus attempted to recreate older narratives in which Ukraine is discredited and aid to Ukraine is manipulatively portrayed as some kind of limitation of the Slovak population.

On the contrary, a high level of positivity and praise from the disinformation ecosystem was directed at Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. He has long been an idol or a model of an autocratic leader with a so-called sovereign policy - in other words, a policy that is often at odds with democracy and all too often in line with Russian interests - for similar actors. Robert Fico also expressed his support for Orbán's visit to Ukraine and Russia (the so-called peace talks). He also did so during the aforementioned speech at Devín Castle, where he presented Orbán's efforts as an attempt to regulate the conflict in Ukraine.

Ľuboš Blaha, in his post, said in this context that "we want good relations with Russia, we want Slavic reciprocity, we want to stop the war". Orbán is also said to have spoken in Moscow in favour of a peaceful Slovakia. The disinformation website InfoVojna reported just as uncritically on this trip by the Hungarian prime minister (currently holding the presidency of the EU Council). However, unlike the representatives of the SMER-SSD party, he also mentioned the conditions set by Vladimir Putin before the peace negotiations. These include, among other things, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the occupied territories (Donbas, Zaporozhye, Kherson), which Kyiv is to voluntarily surrender to Russia. This is strikingly reminiscent of a surrender - but one that the disinformation ecosystem, including representatives of the ruling coalition, presents as a just peace.

Since posts containing narratives about the war in Ukraine were among the dominant ones in the Slovak information space in the last two weeks, we also looked at them using the CrowdTangle analytical tool. We used it to analyse the most popular posts on Slovak Facebook that contained the keywords "war", "peace", "Ukraine" or "Russia". We excluded from the list those posts that did not contain problematic narratives. We then evaluated the posts based on the total number of interactions (the sum of all reactions, comments, and shares).

The post with the most interactions on Facebook was published by prime minister Robert Fico. In it, he returned to his speech at the celebrations at Devín Castle. The prime minister used the post to reiterate his rhetoric falsely presenting himself as a peacemaker. He went on to stress that the war in Ukraine has no military solution in his view and called for peace negotiations to avoid the "much more terrible quality" of a military conflict. In addition to expressing support for Viktor Orbán (his visit to Ukraine and Russia), Fico hinted at the idea of a so-called just peace. It is difficult to imagine what he means by this - but we are probably not far from the truth if we say that it implies at a minimum a partial surrender of Ukraine and at the same time legitimising Russia's possible territorial gains. At least that is what the Prime Minister's rhetoric of recent months suggests.

The second post was originally published by Ľuboš Blaha on Telegram. It was subsequently shared on the official SMER-SSD Facebook page. This is a long-standing modus operandi by which the party circumvents the ban of its MEP on the Meta platform. At the same time, it strengthens the reach and interaction rate on its own profile. In the post, Blaha continues his attacks on liberals (or so-called progressives), whom he contrasts with tradition. The post espouses the Cyril and Methodius tradition (theologians from the Eastern Orthodox Church, who are celebretated in Slovakia as „the fathers of the nation“), reiterating the messages of peace. Blaha reminds us of his statement that war and destruction in Slovakia inevitably come from the West and peace from the East. Blaha attacks the emotions of the audience with his post - he manipulatively inserts narratives about fanatical militarism, migration and individualistic ideologies. At the same time, he quite clearly oversimplifies history and omits segments that do not suit him - for example, 1968 (the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops) or even the power reasons that led the USSR to liberate Czechoslovakia during the Second World War.

The third post follows the template of the previous one. Again, it was originally published on Ľuboš Blaha's Telegram profile and later by the official SMER-SSD Facebook page. In the post, the MEP reacted to the Police of the Czech Republic, which does not investigate internet reactions (e.g. verbal approval of an act) to the assassination attempt on Robert Fico. The Police of the Czech Republic described such criticism by SMER-SSD representatives as inappropriate and clearly declared itself as an apolitical body that keeps within the boundaries of the law. But what were these accusations based on? According to Blaha, "the Czech right-wing government headed by Petr Fiala continues to provoke and destroy Slovak-Czech relations in a completely unnecessary way." He describes the Czech government as fanatical activists, manipulatively identifying them with the liberal opposition in Slovakia. Blaha essentially suggests that the reason for the "liquidation" of Czech-Slovak relations is to be some kind of collusive alliance against the Slovak government coalition, possibly referring to the fact that the Czech government does not agree with the Slovak vision of peace. Apart from being highly problematic, these accusations also contain a number of manipulative hooks designed to engage the audience and provoke emotion. However, this is the traditional reaction of Slovak government representatives - they falsely present themselves as the martyrs of some kind of injustice or lynching by the so-called liberal or militarist camp. Among other things, they often absolve themselves of responsibility and create more enemies by painting targets.

The next post in the list was published by Eduard Chmelar. In it, the prime minister's advisor tried to assess the foreign policy situation. He touched on a number of areas in which he either misled or went straight to conspiracy theorising - in the case of the French elections, for example, he wondered whether President Emmanuel Macron might decide to concentrate all state power in his own hands and become a dictator. More importantly, however, Chmelár's post scared of the fate of the European Union, which, in his view, is doomed to irrelevance and war after the election of Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas. The West, according to Chmelár, "demonstrably wants war " - but paradoxically, he offers no evidence, and in the piece he rather seeks to improve the reputation of Russia, which he singles out as invincible. Chmelár's piece bears a striking resemblance to the narratives of Russian propaganda - it scares of inevitable catastrophe and global war, yet it offers no rational alternative.

The last place also belongs to Eduard Chmelár's post. In it, among other things, he attacks the newly elected president, Peter Pellegrini, who, on an official visit to Poland, declared that the Russian aggression in Ukraine was unprovoked. This did not sit well with the prime minister's adviser, who proceeded to repeat the mantras of Russian propaganda in his post: Russia was to be threatened by an expanding NATO, the West was bloodthirsty, and the Minsk agreements were not being respected exclusively by Ukraine. These are narratives that have been debunked many times over, yet they remain in the consciousness of part of the population and are effective. That is why disinformation actors like to return to them. Chmelár also makes several recommendations to Ukraine. He warns them against the nefarious interests of the USA, which is said to be trying to destroy Ukraine. At the same time, he recommends the path of neutrality to Kyiv, which is said to be the safest one for the future. This is a truly tragicomic phenomenon - it is precisely neutrality and the guarantee of independence by the great powers that has brought Ukraine to its present situation. At the same time, it is quite likely that the neutrality that Chmelár proposes for Ukraine would in practice be more of a servitude to Russia.

Thus, in the last two weeks, the Slovak information space was lined with problematic narratives that relied primarily on false calls for peace and deliberate simplification of the geopolitical situation. Actors associated with the ruling coalition were particularly active. The rise of narratives seeking to legitimise Russian aggression and promote the idea of a 'just peace' could also be linked to the then upcoming NATO summit. The US, but also the European Union, continues to be the target of propaganda attacks. And under the label of progressivism or liberalism, another enemy continues to be formed by which the ruling coalition absolves itself of responsibility and diverts the attention of the population to proxy (fictitious) problems.

Project Infosecurity.sk organized by Adapt Institute, which is supported by the Prague office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, continuously monitors the activities of both Slovak and foreign disinformation actors, but focuses mainly on the former. The project activities are built upon daily monitoring of emerging disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories in the online information space. This approach allows the analysts to identify disinformation posts and narratives that resonated with the public the most, as well as to find out where they originated, and how they spread and evolved on social media. The report takes the form of a bi-weekly summary of arising trends in the spread of malicious information content online. Based on that, Infosecurity.sk can inform the public about emerging and current trends in the field of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda.