Heger’s advisor Štulajter: Political culture does not look like you are talking about the mental disorders of a coalition partner – Denník N

Ivan Štulajter (59) is a former SME journalist and commentator, writer, now media advisor to Prime Minister Eduard Heger. Previously, he worked for SaS for eight years. In the interview, he says: why he does not consider the SaS’s approach to the Matovič package to be fair, whether it is possible that Matovič will eventually be recalled by the parliament, whether Eduard Heger would lead a government supported by the Tarabovs, why he himself criticized the family package, and where Sulík crosses the line when criticizing Matovič. Was it necessary for the situation in the coalition to reach where it did? It wasn’t necessary, I don’t see any historical or other legality by which such a collision had to occur. But I think that due to the type of communication chosen by the two main actors, i.e. Richard Sulík and Igor Matovič, it led to a conflict. These were very personal attacks and that is never a good thing in politics if we want to solve problems. For a long time, commentators, observers and analysts have criticized Slovakian politics for having a low political culture. This now has direct consequences. In what sense? A low political culture complicates the possibility of solving political conflicts in a civilized way, in the sense of public interest. When foul language, personal attack, name-calling and ad hominem arguments are used in political communication, then it has these consequences. Politicians can’t communicate with each other anymore, they have resentment and animosity towards each other. This affects the coalition to a great extent and has also resulted in today’s coalition crisis. Video: Ivan Štulajter: It is possible that Matovič will retire in the fall
(authors: Martina Koník, Dušan Mikušovič) Is it just a matter of communication or is it also a form, a way of ruling or enforcing one’s own agenda? Decent and correct communication is a basic prerequisite for people to listen to each other. If they insult each other, one stops listening to the other’s arguments and his only goal is to defeat him. It’s already a “who of whom” situation. I think that’s exactly what happened in the coalition. This is an illustrative example of the impasse that political immaturity and the absence of political culture lead to. Isn’t it a bit sad that we label people who have been in politics for twelve years as immature politicians? It is one of the paradoxes of Slovak politics. But it must be said that these politicians spent most of their time in the opposition. Oppositional communication is, after all, slightly different from coalition and cooperation communication. Igor Matovič and Richard Sulík are people who started their business in the 1990s. They operated in a vertical structure and were on top of it, from there they controlled their people through a system of instructions. And they transferred that to politics. Today they have come across that politics is not only a vertical structure, there are also many horizontal structures. A lot of cooperation, communication, persuasion based on arguments, not directives. They encountered a limitation of their own that they carried over from their personal history. Prime Minister Heger met with Richard Sulík on Saturday. The President of SaS spoke about the extensive and constructive conversation. Do you know more about what they covered? I know something about that conversation because I spoke with the prime minister. Well, it probably wouldn’t be completely correct for me to talk about something that the prime minister doesn’t talk about publicly. I have to confirm that he also told me about extensive communication. However, I did not get a clear answer to my question about whether he sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Apparently, the situation has not matured in such a way that it would be possible to say what further developments will look like – whether there is a way out, or, on the contrary, whether the positions are set in stone. A discussion took place and it is always the basis of an understanding. From my point of view, it is important that an agreement is reached. Sulík declared that the demand for Igor Matovič’s resignation from the government is still valid. The prime minister and OĽaNO politicians are now publicly saying that this demand is unacceptable, and if SaS wants to come to an agreement, it will have to back down. You only know Sulík, do you think he will back down? I can imagine the circumstances under which Richard Sulík would back down from this request, which seems unacceptable today. After all, OĽaNO clearly communicated that this is the case. Politics is a very malleable thing. I can imagine it under certain circumstances, the question is what those circumstances might be. That’s my question too. What could they be? Solve This article is exclusive content for Denník N subscribers. Are you a subscriber? Log in