Democracy Digest: Warsaw Reels as US Throws Future of US Troops in Poland into Doubt

The European Parliament has stepped up pressure on Slovakia, approving for the second time in less than a month a resolution criticising the government of PM Robert Fico and urging the EU Commission to consider freezing EU funds. Where an earlier vote focused largely on concerns over the handling of EU money, the latest resolution paints a broader picture of democratic decline. MEPs raised concerns over political influence in public service broadcasting, pressure on civil society organisations, weakened anti-corruption measures, and legal reforms that lowered penalties for corruption and shortened statutes of limitation. The resolution passed with 347 votes for, 165 against and 25 abstentions. Slovak representatives from governing parties and their allies voted against it, while MEPs from Progressive Slovakia, the country’s strongest opposition party, did not participate. Javier Zarzalejos, chair of the EU Parliament’s civil liberties committee, called the vote a “last warning” to Slovakia, saying EU membership was about more than access to money. The resolution requests the EU Commission examine whether developments in Slovakia amount to a serious threat to the bloc’s core values, including democracy and the rule of law, and to consider all available measures – including a mechanism that could eventually suspend funding. PM Fico dismissed the vote, describing it as “only a political manifesto without any binding character”. The vote indeed carries no legal force, but two resolutions in quick succession add to the pressure on the EU Commission to respond. The criticism rests in part on the findings of two EU Parliament monitoring missions to Slovakia last year, which raised concerns about the management of EU funds, judicial independence and the shrinking space for civil society. MEPs stopped short of calling for Article 7 proceedings – the EU’s strongest political instrument against member states accused of breaching democratic standards – leaving open the possibility Slovakia can still change course.

In mid-May, a small stand selling langoš – a pancake-shaped fried dough snack – in southern Slovakia was fined 1,500 euros over a receipt that omitted Slovak diacritical marks. Instead of langoš, the receipt read langos. The penalty – roughly equivalent to the average monthly gross salary, though many Slovaks earn much less – sparked outrage across the country. For many, the case reinforced a familiar grievance: that the state acts swiftly and uncompromisingly against ordinary people and minor, unintentional infractions, while appearing far less effective in confronting high-profile corruption or political wrongdoing. The head of the tax authority, Jozef Kiss, initially defended the fine as lawful. Strictly speaking, he was correct: the sanction complied with existing legislation. The question, however, was whether tax inspectors could have exercised discretion, particularly given that the error in the receipt and electronic cash register had been corrected within half an hour. Kiss also argued that the missing accent mark was not the seller’s only mistake. Yet inspectors themselves made errors in both their official report and the decision imposing the fine. Public sympathy quickly rallied behind the langoš seller, Anton Pasek. People flocked to Kvetoslavov, where the stand is located, to buy langoš in a show of support. Kiss, meanwhile, suggested that the intense media attention had ultimately benefited Pasek by increasing his revenues. Days later – and only after the PM publicly condemned the penalty as “bullying” and called on the authorities to apologise – the tax authority abruptly changed course. The fine would be refunded, the law amended, and Kiss himself appeared at the stand to apologise to Pasek, all before the investigation into the case had formally concluded. Kiss went further still, praising the langoš seller as perhaps “the only honest entrepreneur” in the sector, citing tax data that purportedly show most langoš vendors report improbably low sales.