One of Slovakia’s most prominent political figures, Vladimir Meciar, has finally decided to abandon his beloved LS-HZDS party, which he set up back in 1991.
The LS-HZDS party has been rapidly losing ground for years while Meciar kept his grip on the party, but after a catastrophic election result of less than 1% in March 2012, Meciar finally announced to the party meeting yesterday that he would not be running as chairman.
Many top party members think it would be best to disband the party and leave the political scene, as it now faces a massive uphill struggle to get back to the 5% parliamentary threshold. The end of Meciar’s 21 years at the forefront of Slovak politics, and the end of a political era in Slovakia, with other dinosaurs like Jan Slota from the SNS party and Mikulas Dzurinda from the SDKU party also taking back seats now.
Who is Meciar?
I’ve been waiting to ask this question for too long. Not feeling happy though, just normal.
Living in Australia I had to answer a few times annoying questions about him. He was “famous”.
Why do foreigners assume that if you come from that country you must always support it’s leaders?
I saw foreigners asking Iraqis about Saddam Hussein like they were his family or knew him personally. I felt embarrassed seeing that.