On May 29, 2025, IVO experts Grigorij Mesežnikov and Miroslav Kollár, together with Juraj Buzalka, a social anthropologist from the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava, discussed the influence of foreign authoritarian forces on Slovak society, its democratic system and civilizational anchoring in the West, in the Litterra cultural and educational hub with the citizens of Rožňava.
The event was organized by IVO in cooperation with the non-profit organization Litterra, the civic association Naša Revúca (Our Revúca) and the youth initiative Riava as part of the IVO Road Show project "Experts for the People", supported by the Open Information Partnership (OIP). The discussion, which was introduced by Diana Jacková (Litterra), was moderated by Csilla Droppová from the civic initiative Nie v našom meste (Not in Our City) (Banská Bystrica). 20 citizens of Rožňava were present.
Grigorij Mesežnikov presented his reflections on the issue of society’s resilience as one of the important factors for the long-term sustainability of the results of the more than 35-year process of democratization, building a new state, socio-economic reforms, participation in European integration and transatlantic partnership. As a member of the community of free and democratic countries, the Slovak Republic, together with other allied countries, has in recent years been confronted with an alliance of aggressive authoritarian states led by Russia. Only strong ties with the EU and NATO can provide the country with effective guarantees of stability and security. It is absolutely unacceptable if the current government forces weaken these ties and thereby create a more favorable environment for foreign actors of authoritarian influence, which is inherently hostile to democracy, freedom and the Western choice. In this context, G. Mesežnikov pointed out the positions of the current Slovak government on Russia's continued aggression against Ukraine, on its attempts to normalize relations with the Russian Federation, which contradict the positions of European allies and partners.
Juraj Buzalka addressed the deeper socio-cultural causes of the pro-Russian social sentiment. According to him, Slovak society as such is not pro-Russian, but people often combine in their attitudes geopolitical illusions from the past, resulting, among other things, from a lack of knowledge, with expectations of benefits (mostly unrealistic) that the current government, which has been presenting itself in this way for a long time, can "manage" for the country's population in Russia. At the same time, support for Ukraine is incomparably more important for the survival of the current Slovak statehood than playing with the dictatorial Kremlin regime.
Miroslav Kollár pointed out the role of the media in forming opinions on key issues of social development, on political preferences and foreign policy orientations of the population. He characterized the situation on the media scene in two of its segments in the context of the current government's media policy, namely in the public media, especially after the election of the statutory bodies of the STVR, and in the environment of mainstream electronic and print media and online platforms. He demonstrated research findings showing the viewership of various media and platforms in different age groups.
During the discussion, IVO experts answered questions from the audience.
