Michal Hvorecky: “There are attempts at censorship – also in Germany” | EUROtoday

„Hallo, Europa! Mein Aufbruch in die freie Welt“ heißt das erste Kapitel Ihres neuen Buches. Sie versetzen die Leser zurück an den 10. Dezember 1989, als die Teilnehmer eines im Rahmen der Samtenen Revolution der Tschechoslowakei stattfindenden Protestmarsches illegal die Grenze nach Österreich überquerten. Sie waren als Zwölfjähriger mittendrin. Diesen von Aufbruchsstimmung erfüllten Tag beschreiben Sie als Ende einer langen Epoche der Unfreiheit. Was bedeutet Freiheit für Sie?

Childhood was very gray in Bratislava back then. The city was completely different. I am very grateful that I have this experience – 13 years of dictatorship, 13 years of real socialism. I know this old world and can make a comparison. Democracy is I don’t take it for granted. My book begins on December 10th because I remember it as such an unforgettable, euphoric day. As an adult, I understood how nice it was that there was talk of a “return to Europe” at the protest march – we were still part of the West despite forty years of dictatorship, and now we were back. They no longer wanted to be Eastern Europe and remain behind the Iron Curtain.

You wrote your previous books, novels such as “Troll” (2018) and “Tahiti Utopia” (2021), in Slovak, and translations had been revealed in Germany. How is it that your new e book was written in German?

My editor spoke to me. Before that I had solely written brief texts for newspapers in German. My writer inspired me to lastly attempt writing an extended textual content. Changing languages ​​was an interesting expertise.

German isn’t a international language for you. In your e book you describe that your maternal grandfather belonged to the Spis Saxon minority.

German has at all times been a part of my id and my world. My grandfather spoke very old school German, an oral dialect. People like him had been bilingual and truly second-class residents till the autumn of communism. In the Fifties, German in Czechoslovakia was thought-about the language of the fascists, the language of the enemy. Me and my cousins ​​watched Austrian tv and listened to Austrian radio after we had been kids. That was our media world. I think about it to be much like the East Berliners who used West Berlin media. People lived on this schizophrenic scenario wherein actuality was an actual socialist, dogmatic world and the media world was a free, capitalist one.

December 10, the day the protest march passed off, can also be International Human Rights Day. What is the scenario underneath Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has been again in energy in Slovakia since autumn 2023 with a authorities alliance of populists and right-wingers?

For two and a half years, Slovak civil society was very lively and protested towards the shift to the suitable. Now, after so many months, there’s a fairly darkish temper within the nation. First it was about struggles within the areas of tradition and the atmosphere – the 2 ministers accountable are a conspiracy theorist and a right-wing radical. Now the rule of legislation itself is the main focus. The scenario is absolutely not good there. Corruption proceedings are at present underway towards individuals near Fico. Now it is about whether or not the rule of legislation is overturned and whether or not individuals near the occasion can nonetheless be pretty convicted. For instance, there’s a case underway towards the present vice-president of the Slovakian parliament, Tibor Gašpar, who was previously the police chief. In 2018 he was pressured to resign after the homicide of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancé.

Fico additionally needed to vacate his submit as prime minister on account of the mass protests. Kuciak had been researching connections between Fico’s atmosphere and arranged crime till he was shot. The alleged mastermind was by no means convicted.

The son of the then police chief Gašpar now heads the SIS secret service. He has his father’s face tattooed on his forearm and one other one of many Consigliere from “The Godfather.” In Slovakia they converse of a mafia clan.

In the autumn of 2023, regardless of these well-known shady entanglements, many Slovaks re-elected Fico and his populist Smer occasion. How come?

Robert Fico is an influence man, an opportunist. He performs lots with the fears of the inhabitants, particularly now in occasions of battle. He types himself as somebody who understands the world effectively – as the top of presidency of a small nation, however who’s in cost. Unfortunately, that is effectively acquired by elements of the inhabitants. And Fico felt that he might additionally rating factors together with his statements about NGOs. He claims that they’re all managed from overseas, repeating the Kremlin narrative. This is much like what occurred in Georgia, much like what occurred in Bulgaria; This technique continues to divide and polarize society much more.

The narrative concerning the NGOs allegedly pulling the strings in secret was additionally unfold on this nation a 12 months in the past – first by the right-wing on-line portal “Nius” and the AfD, later by politicians from the Union and the newspaper “Die Welt”. A reprimand from the German Press Council adopted towards the latter.

I see comparable tendencies in established democracies as in Slovakia. There are makes an attempt at censorship in tradition and media, together with in Germany – like not too long ago when the three left-wing bookstores had been excluded from the bookstore prize. You should look carefully to grasp what’s threatening. The proper may be very effectively related.

During your final interview with the FAZ in autumn 2024, you had simply been reported for defamation by the Slovakian Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová. In an article they described the politician, who had been nominated for workplace by the ultra-right SNS occasion, as a neo-fascist. They feared a jail sentence of as much as 5 years. What occurred subsequent?

I can now fortunately say that I’ve gained my authorized battle towards the ministries. I can proceed to talk freely about them and write what I take into consideration them. She is a neo-fascist.

Šimkovičová, who was generally known as a right-wing influencer earlier than taking workplace, believes that LGBTQ persons are chargeable for the extinction of the white race. According to her, tradition needs to be “Slovak – and no other”. Its Secretary General Lukáš Machala isn’t positive whether or not the Earth is absolutely spherical. Many impartial cultural tasks not obtain funding. Public broadcasting was additionally introduced underneath management. How do individuals in Slovakia defend themselves towards such assaults and this rampant incompetence?

Above all, we now have realized: protest should be progressive. He has to handle individuals and discover matters which can be essential regionally. That’s why I noticed it as my job to journey to the areas. I’ve seen how very totally different individuals need to help this democracy from under. It’s a colourful combine – there are liberals and conservatives, believers and atheists. Some are extra right-wing, some are extra left-wing, there are younger and outdated individuals. But regardless of all their variations, they’re very pro-European and have an affinity for freedom. For me, these are the brand new dissidents. But I additionally sense a sure tiredness within the cultural scene. That many are annoyed as a result of after so many actions, Šimkovičová and her entourage are nonetheless in energy. The constitutional change final autumn was a rupture and the opposition cut up. In a deep disaster within the governing coalition, Fico understood that he might rating considerably higher with tradition wars than, for instance, with fixing the inflation downside. When it was speculated to be about issues like corruption, he immediately advised that to any extent further there ought to solely be women and men within the structure – no marriage for same-sex {couples} and an finish to intersex and trans individuals. Unfortunately, elements of the opposition went together with it, specifically the Christian Democrats.

The title of your e book is “Dissident.” This instantly brings to thoughts the Cold War.

The writer advised the title after studying the manuscript. I really feel very impressed by the Eastern European dissidents like Wassyl Stus in Ukraine, Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia or Adam Michnik in Poland. And additionally from the various feminine dissidents. Here within the East, this heritage has disappeared from the collective reminiscence. Today we now have utterly totally different opponents than the dissidents again then, however nonetheless very highly effective ones. Our enemy are the algorithms that management towards us. Our enemy can also be social media, which has change into instruments of tyrants.

Her father was a pc scientist and was on the very starting of pc tradition in Czechoslovakia. At that point, individuals seemed to the brand new know-how with nice hope – it will make data accessible to everybody. Can we discover our approach again to those emancipatory roots?

We want creativity and motive, like we did initially of the pc age. My father’s era believed that pc networks might create a extra simply world. It was a utopian venture that has change into a dystopia. Maybe we have to go offline extra. We want new dissidents and new utopias.

Michal Hvoreckyborn in Bratislava in 1976, is among the most well-known modern Slovak authors. In his e book “Dissident,” which has simply been revealed by Tropen Verlag, he reviews on his childhood in Czechoslovakia and the resurgent authoritarianism.