On 5-6 October our team of experts (Adam Balcer, Zsuzsanna Vegh and Andrei Macsut) came to Bratislava, Slovakia for the study tour regarding the results of parliamentarian elections, corruption and Russian influence. The study tour was organized as a part of the European Commission funded project about the threats to democracy in the EU.
On the first day, we met with Grigorij Mesežnikov, director of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), Oľga Gyárfášová, professor of the Comenius University, and Sylvia Tiryaki, director of the Helsinki Committee for the Human Rights – Slovakia to talk about the results of Slovak elections. We also had a great opportunity to talk with Michal Piško, Director of Transparency International Slovensko about corruption and with Dominika Hajdu and Katarína Klíngová from GLOBSEC about disinformation and pro-Russian tendencies in Slovak society. Both meetings have been very relevant for the policy papers we are about to publish this year (about corruption in Central Eastern Europe and Russian influence in the EU).
On the second day, we had a pleasure to meet with Tomáš Strážay, Director of Slovak Foreign Policy Association. We talked about three scenarios for Slovakia’s Foreign Policy after the elections. Our last meeting was at the Presidential Palace. Jarmila Lajčáková (Advisor of the President Zuzana Čaputová) together with Andrej Schulcz told us about the long and intensive election campaign and the position of the President in assuring the protection of the human rights.
Head of the expert project: Adam Balcer, Programme Director
Logistics organiser: Arkadiusz Zając, Programme Assistant
