Slovakian governing party's racist election campaign

Ján Slota's extreme right wing Slovak National Party (SNS) is playing the racist card in the Slovakian elections. The party's huge campaign posters show a down-and-out member of the Roma minority with the words: "So we don't support those who don't want to work". The liberal daily Sme is appalled: "Slovakia has a government with racist members. The SNS's abhorrent poster puts the government firmly in the ranks of extremist groups. ... [Prime Minister Robert] Fico has done his best to convince people that the SNS isn't as bad as all that. It's also Fico's fault that nationalist sentiment and attacks on our Hungarian neighbour have become the norm. The election campaign may have only just started, but it's already clear that it will be unprecedented in its ugliness. If people - or even the government and the president - do not stand up and condemn this poster then we are even worse than we thought."

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