A suspected mafia killing of an investigative journalist last month continues to upend politics in the small central European country of Slovakia. Ján Kuciak, 27, was an investigative reporter who covered cases of tax fraud and corruption, some of which were linked to Slovak politicians. The final story he was working on when he and his fiancé Martina Kušnírová were murdered involved members of the Italian mafia and the ruling Smer-SD party; it described shady business ties between suspected crime syndicate members and Slovak politicians, including the misappropriation of European Union funding by organized crime.
The episode has triggered the largest public protests in Slovakia since the end of the communist era, with demonstrators seeking early elections to remove the present governing coalition, which they allege is corrupt and infiltrated by organized criminal groups. Corruption has long been a serious social problem in Slovakia, with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright famously calling the country “the black hole of Europe” back in 1997.
Impact
A coming collapse of the Smer-SD administration? Slovakia has already seen a string of high-level resignations since the murders came to light. First came that of Mária Trosková, a former Miss Universe contestant and personal assistant to current Smer-SD leader Robert Fico, and then Viliam Jasan, Secretary of the State Security Council, and finally Minister of Culture Marek Madaric. The first two have denied any responsibility for the murders of Ján Kuciak and his fiancé, but both knew Italian expatriate Antonino Vadala, one of the seven Italian men briefly arrested after the murders, and someone with a checkered criminal past. Though he was released for lack of evidence in the Kuciak case, Vadala himself was swiftly rearrested by Slovak police on a European arrest warrant issued last year by Italy, which is seeking his extradition to face drug trafficking charges back in his home country. Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák resigned around the same time in response to street protests and demands from its junior coalition partner Most-Hid (Bridge) party.
