DISINFORMATION

Bogeyman Šimečka and the "peace" celebration of the Slovak National Uprising. Disinformers continue to build pro-Russian sentiments in Slovak society

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

• The leader of Progressive Slovakia (PS), Michal Šimečka, continued to be subjected to dubious accusations by the ruling coalition. Other members of Šimečka's family did not escape ad hominem attacks this time either. The disinformation ecosystem uses highly manipulative rhetoric and lies to make the Šimečka family an internal enemy in the eyes of the public. Above all, it is an effort to avoid opposition criticism and delegitimise any scrutiny of government actions.
• The 80th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP), which falls on 29 August, has become the target of manipulation and political abuse. The historical milestone has served the disinformation agents to emphasise the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Slovakia from Nazism, while this narrative has been accompanied by the glorification of today's Russia and the justification of its actions towards Ukraine. The underlying motive for the disinformation actors was false calls for peace.
• We have also seen continued attacks against the EU and the West. Western states are said to be prolonging the conflict with Russia, on which they are imposing pointless and dysfunctional sanctions. The older narratives have been compounded by false claims that pro-Western MEPs for Slovakia are collaborating with foreigners and thus betraying their own state.

Boogeyman Šimečka?

The disinformation system continued its attacks on Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Šimečka and his family. The ad hominem rhetoric continued the baseless accusations and manipulative narratives from two weeks ago. The so-called "suspicious" use of public funds was initially pointed out by Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová (Slovak National Party; SNS), albeit without evidence.

Other government officials have gradually jumped on the bandwagon of attacks on Šimečka, contributing to the narrative with further dubious accusations. Their aim seems to be not only to discredit the leader of the opposition, but also to introduce another internal enemy. In other words, the coalition is trying to create an image of Šimečka as a criminal and a bogeyman – regardless of the (lack of) substance of the accusations, they are forming a vague entity that is supposed to harm Slovak interests and the budget. At the same time, it may also be a political revenge – the announced plans to remove Šimečka from the post of deputy speaker of parliament may also be a strong (deterrent) signal to the public.

Prime Minister Robert Fico was not absent from these efforts. He gave the leader of the PS a press conference, where he accused him, among other things, of drawing state money through NGOs. He also returned to the issue of subsidies for the Foundation of Milan Šimečka. The fact that Michal Šimečka is linked to the foundation only by the name of his grandfather, who was a dissident, did not prevent Fico from further developing his attacks and fabrications about other members of the Šimečka family. This time, the Prime Minister also included the civic activities of Šimečka's mother or partner in his web of accusations. According to Fico, all of this is intended to serve the Šimečka family's power and financial interests – although the Prime Minister does not support his accusations with any solid evidence, he presents them in a sufficiently conspiratorial spirit for his audience.

The chairman of the far-right Republic party also fed on these accusations in a video. Milan Uhrík also showed that he did not have sufficient information about the subjects he was attacking. For example, he referred to the Foundation of Milan Šimečka as the foundation of the PS leader's father (it is a foundation named after his grandfather). Paradoxically, however, Uhrík also pointed out the contradictions in Fico's rhetoric – Slovakia had financially supported the Foundation of Milan Šimečka also during the previous governments of Robert Fico. Back then, there was no threat to Slovak interests and finances.

Labelling Šimečka as a criminal also aims to delegitimise opposition criticism and social control. In addition to the media and NGOs, the protests against the government are also attacked with this rhetoric. Ľuboš Blaha, MEP and deputy chairman of the SMER-SSD party, deliberately uses the term "Šimečka's family mafia". Alternatively, he adds the label "progressive fascists" who are supposed to be "tied to the state". Ľuboš Hrica, a Slovak disinformation profile with more than 97 thousand followers on Facebook, also speaks about the misappropriation of money for "own welfare and political goals". Besides the relatively aggressive rhetoric (comparisons to lazy people and parasites), it is also problematic that Hrica presents Šimečka's accusations as a done deal. Without any evidence or investigation.

According to Blaha, the protests are an attempt to "provoke a civil war" or to generate a "new Cintula [name of the attacker on Fico]". These expressions fit into a broader disinformation narrative in which the opposition, the media and NGOs are said to have collaborated to deliberately create the hatred that led to the assassination attempt on Robert Fico. However, this rhetoric is mainly used by actors who try to portray the protests against the current government as disrespectful of the elections or as something that does not belong to democracy. An exception is not even MP Richard Glück (SMER-SSD), who, for example, described the opposition's warnings about the decline of the rule of law as misleading and inciting the public.

Tibor Gašpar (Deputy Speaker of Parliament for SMER-SSD) followed a very similar approach. The post with a summary of the political debate describes the protests and the opposition's actions as "arousing aggression" or "a circus [which] is to culminate in an attempt at another coup". It is also said to be an attempt to cover up the case of the so-called state funding of the Šimečka family. The fact that the criticism and protests reacting to the government's actions came before the accusations by Fico is already being quite manipulatively ignored by Gašpar.

Since the posts containing narratives about the leader of the opposition, Michal Šimečka (or his family), were among the dominant ones in the Slovak information space in the last two weeks, we also looked at them using the analytical tool Gerulata Juno. We used it to analyse the most popular posts on Slovak Facebook that contained the keyword "Šimečka" or "šimečkovci". 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 belongs to Prime Minister Robert Fico. It is an extract of his press conference, which he used to attack the leader of the opposition and the PS party Michal Šimečka. We have already discussed the post above, but we would like to add that Fico's rhetoric contributes, in the case of the Šimečka family, to the formation of an image of a fictitious threat or entity that is supposed to threaten Slovakia because of its power or financial interests. Into the fabricated narrative, Fico, together with other actors in the disinformation ecosystem, also inserts other targets of his policy – primarily the media and NGOs that are supposed to be connected in a conspiratorial way and to act against the ruling coalition. Fico wants to use these  ' internal enemies ' to justify his political actions and to resist legitimate opposition criticism and social scrutiny. At the same time, he seeks to delegitimise the protests – which are once again intended to be a pragmatic tool for Šimečka to protect his income from state resources. However, Fico does not provide relevant evidence for his accusations and ad hominem attacks on members of Šimečka's family. He is deliberately exploiting their otherwise legitimate, legal and non-political activities in order to create an atmosphere for the removal of Šimečka from the post of deputy speaker of parliament.

The second post was published by Minister of Defence Robert Kaliňák. In the compilation of the televised political debate, an effort to delegitimise the opposition protests is again visible. According to Kaliňák, these are a misuse of "protesters to protect the financial interests of the Šimečka family". The minister thus returned to the accusation that the protests have no real substance and that the opposition (possibly more broadly in cooperation with the media and NGOs) is using them to cover its financial interests. Kaliňák described the criticism voiced after the purges in cultural institutions as "exactly the kind of talk that led to the assassination attempt". In other words, he and other government officials are reserving space for rhetoric through which any scrutiny or criticism of government policy will be presented as spreading hatred or threatening the lives of politicians. Nothing new, but still highly manipulative.

In the third post, Minister of the Environment Tomáš Taraba (SNS) reacted to an incident of his State Secretary. On August 18, Štefan Kuffa interrupted a theatre performance in the village of Malá Franková, which he said was perverse and should not have been performed in front of children. It is true that the performance was supposed to be open only to persons over 18 years of age, and the organisers did not communicate this information to the audience. However, that does not excuse the manner in which the Secretary of State entered the performance. Taraba stuck to Kuffa's version of the situation in his post – according to his statement, the theatregoers allegedly attacked him. State Secretary automatically found the source of the possible violence in the Šimečka family. They were in no way connected to the incident. However, the post demonstrates well the modus operandi used by disinformation actors to craft boogeymen and mental shortcuts. Does an emotionally charged and controversial situation happen? The answer is to look for a scapegoat.

The next post in the list was also published by Tomáš Taraba. This time he attacked Martin Milan Šimečka, who is the father of the PS leader and also works as a commentator for Denník N. The fact that Martin M. Šimečka is a co-shareholder of the media (like 70 other people with employee shares that do not exceed 0.5 percent) is manipulatively presented by the minister as proof that Denník N is a party media of Progressive Slovakia. The apparent fabrication of the influence of the so-called Šimečka clan on the aforementioned media fits into a broader narrative in which PS (or the liberals as such) is conspiratorially portrayed as a malevolent entity that, in cooperation with other media and the non-governmental sector, is trying to dominate Slovakia.

The last place belongs again to the post of Tomáš Taraba. He tried to summarise the so-called Šimečka family case. In other words, he summarised the ad hominem attacks and accusations that have so far been made against the PS leader and his family without evidence and often out of context. He repeated the attacks on Michal Šimečka's father, uncle, mother and partner. As we wrote above, these accusations have no factual basis and together make no sense. Rather, they are part of an effort to discredit the actors involved in scrutinising government actions – from the opposition, to the media and NGOs, to the legitimacy of the protests.

Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising: the resuscitation of pro-Soviet sentiments and false calls for peace

During the period under review, there were posts glorifying Russia as a peacemaker and attacks on the West, which allegedly reinforces Russophobia and intensifies the conflict with Russia. To a large extent, the appearance of these posts was related to the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP).

The SNP, which began on 29 August 1944, was an armed uprising of Slovaks against Nazism and fascism. To this day, it represents one of the most important Slovak national holidays and historical milestones, which carries a message of peace, resistance to totalitarianism and non-democratic regimes. However, its celebrations are continuously abused by pro-Russian actors who seek to hyperbolise the role of the Soviet Red Army and the Communists and, on the contrary, to overshadow the activities of various partisan and resistance groups, as well as the support for the uprising from abroad.

This year, in particular, the palette of deceptive narratives has expanded to include claims about the need for peace in the world, referring to Russia's war against Ukraine. This was one of the main themes of Prime Minister Robert Fico's official speech at the SNP celebrations in Banská Bystrica. Fico said that the Slovaks are a peaceful nation and "the main message of the Slovak National Uprising was to end the war and establish peace", which needs to be replicated today in the case of the war in Ukraine. He thus continued the long-repeated narrative of the need to secure peace in Ukraine at all costs, regardless of Ukraine's demands.

The Prime Minister also stated in his speech that today the rules of the international order that were set after World War II no longer apply and red lines are being crossed. However, he was not referring to Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine. In fact, he added that "it is dangerous that we are witnessing a possible global confrontation today" and that there is talk of the threat of nuclear conflict, thus returning to the tried and tested scare of a third world war and nuclear conflict.

He went on to suggest that European nations are trying to impose their vision of how to run their internal affairs on Russia, dictating what its leaders should say and write, and which athletes can play hockey or compete in the Olympics. In addition, Fico did not forget to mention his traditional narrative about the alleged suppression of 'sovereign self-confident opinions', but also the narrative that sanctions against Russia do not work.

At the end of his speech, Fico mentioned that members of many other nations also participated in the SNP, but in this sense he only mentioned the visit of a delegation of descendants of fighters from the former Soviet Union to the ongoing celebrations. Fico's party colleague Ľuboš Blaha also resorted to denigrating the SNP, referring in a Telegram post to the Red Army as the liberators of the Slovaks from fascist oppression. He also expressed his pro-Russian sentiment with a handshake with Igor Bratchikov, the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Slovakia, who was officially invited to the SNP celebrations. Blaha praised his participation in the event, despite the fact that it presaged the absence of political representatives of NATO and EU states.

In addition, Blaha spoke out against opposition politicians. He referred to them as "progressive-liberal fascists" who deliberately stir up conflict with Russia. In another of his many toxic telegram posts, he claimed that war against Russia meant the return of fascism. This, he said, is exactly what the fascists who dress in rainbow colours instead of brown, "love wars, hate free speech and racially spread hatred against Russians" want. Blaha also made sure to link his fabricated claims to the assassination attempt on Robert Fico, who was allegedly targeted by these fascist groups because he openly opposed them.

Blaha's justifications for Russia and the bending of history were also used in another post, where he not only referred to Ukrainians and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as fascists, but also stressed Germany's support for Ukraine as a former fascist regime: "They are waging a war against the Russians, and they don't even hide it anymore. (...) German weapons have already been on Russian territory once. In the name of fascist ideology."

Blaha was reacting to a statement made by Marcus Faber, the chairman of the defence committee in the German parliament. Faber said in early August that Germany could supply Ukraine with military equipment for fighting in the Kursk region, describing the Ukrainian army's actions in the region as legitimate. Blaha, on the other hand, argued that the Kursk offensive only "confirms what Vladimir Putin has been saying from the first minute - Russia is resisting Western aggression", while "Zelensky is attacking Russia, just like Hitler once did". He also reiterated that the failure of the peace talks is the fault of the West, which is supposed to deliberately obstruct promising peace processes.

Minister of Interior Matúš Šutaj Eštok manipulatively exploited the recent anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops since 1968, which he compared to the alleged "suing" of some Slovak MPs in the European Parliament. In a Facebook video, the politician claims that these people are "betraying their own state" and "literally slandering Slovakia just to please foreigners". This is, in his view, a "disgusting collaboration with foreigners". He says this despite the fact that Slovakia is part of the EU and the West, from which it derives considerable benefits.

Similar to Šutaj Eštok, Fico also commented on the anniversary, arguing that the events of 1968 should be a memento for today as well, as "the politics of only one single correct political opinion is being promoted once again, and when anyone who shows sovereignty and courage in their views on the most serious foreign policy issues faces indiscriminate pressure from advanced democracies and the threat of isolation".

Glorification of the Russian economy and "ineffective" sanctions

Pro-Russian narratives have also appeared in other posts by disinformation actors over the past two weeks, mainly wrapped up in continued attacks against the West and the EU. Facebook posts by György Gyimesi, member of the Alliance – Szövetség party, were popular. He used videos from his visit to Moscow and Kamchatka to try to prove that sanctions against Russia are ineffective and are in fact being violated by many Western companies.

He used the German car giant Mercedes-Benz or the American fast food chain McDonald's as examples. In both cases, Gyimesi was misleading the audience. In the case of McDonald's, the politician deliberately used the formulation that "as you can see, they have evolved, McDonald's has become Vkusno i Tochka". He meant to imply that the American company was still profiting from the sale of products in Russia. However, McDonald's sold its Russian businesses to businessman Alexander Govor in 2022 and the restaurants underwent a rebranding.

Similarly, Mercedes-Benz announced in October 2022 its intention to exit the Russian market, suspending both passenger car and van sales and production in Russia, and announced the possibility of selling its Russian assets. Gyimesi says in the video that "it's perfectly OK for Germans to make bloody Russian rubles" while telling us to cut ourselves off from Russian oil and gas. This is a deception, since, according to the information available, the Russian oligarchs are acquiring new luxury models of Western cars by circumventing the sanctions in force, for example, by importing these models from Belarus, Armenia, Turkey and other countries.

Later, Gyimesi followed up with a video from an unnamed rural settlement in Kamchatka, purporting to show that a variety of goods, including luxury products, are available locally, and "all the major European and American brands are present." It is not clear from the footage or from Gyimesi's statements whether the products are imported from these countries despite the sanctions, or whether the goods are delivered from other countries, as in the case of luxury cars.

According to the politician, the Russian economy "grows at a rate of 5%". The statement is false. According to the Our World in Data database, the last time Russia recorded 5% GDP growth was in 2021. Although two years later the indicator is again in positive figures (GDP grew to 3.6%), in 2022 the economy experienced a strong slump (GDP fell to -2.1% and GDP per capita to -2.2%). The International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury also report that sanctions are negatively affecting Russia.

Gyimesi has used his videos to attack the West and the EU repeatedly. He said that "Russia's economy is booming, while ours is bleeding and people are feeling a real decline in their standard of living." According to the politician, it is Western politicians and EU or US officials who are letting Europe bleed, acting against all rational arguments.

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.