On May 28, 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 with the citizens of Rožňava in the Kláštor cultural center about the resilience of Slovak society towards external threats in the context of the existing democratic order and the Western foreign policy and security and defense orientation of the country.
The event was organized by IVO in cooperation with the civic associations Kláštor and Otvor Dvor as part of the IVO Road Show project "Experts to the People", supported by the Open Information Partnership (OIP). The discussion was moderated by Csilla Droppová from the civic initiative Nie v našom mieste (Not in our city) (Banská Bystrica). 30 citizens of Rožňava were present.
In the discussion, the experts focused on issues related to the resilience of society, the ability of state institutions and democratic political actors to cope with current challenges arising from developments in Europe and the world. They also touched on the attitudes of the population to democracy, the basic values and norms of a free society after 1989, and the foreign policy orientation of the Slovak Republic. They also pointed out the role of independent and public media.
Grigorij Mesežnikov listed the factors that strengthen the resilience of Slovak society against internal and external threats, but also the factors that weaken it. He underlined that it depends on the actiona of a wider range of domestic actors, creating the background for both the sustainability of the democratic system and the country's firm anchoring in the EU and NATO, i. e. state institutions, including those of their components that work in the field of strategic communication and resistance to hybrid threats, local and regional self-government bodies, educational and academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and civic initiatives, independent media. G. Mesežnikov touched on specific forms of activities of actors of foreign authoritarian influence in Slovakia, especially representatives of the domestic pro-Russian political and opinion scene. He gave examples of frequent narratives used by Russian propaganda to influence the population of Central European countries, including Slovakia.
Juraj Buzalka focused on the correlation between the risk of a part of the population succumbing to foreign influence weakening support for democracy and questioning the need for Slovakia's membership in the EU and NATO, and persistent social problems in individual regions of Slovakia, especially in rural areas. Long-term ineffective strategies for solving these problems (for example, persistent regional disparities or an oligarchic model of agricultural sector development that does not take into account the needs of small and medium-sized owners and entrepreneurs) lead to social skepticism, cynicism and the preservation of socio-cultural patterns among a certain part of the population, weakening democratic sentiment and electoral behavior, creating more favorable conditions for actors of foreign influence to promote toxic social narratives and sympathies towards the Russian regime, as well as elements of nationalism, xenophobia and isolationism.
Miroslav Kollár focused on the situation on the media scene in the Slovak Republic, especially in the context of forming citizens' opinions on current domestic political developments and the country's foreign policy direction. He presented the results of research on the audience of individual media and monitoring the activities of socio-political actors (individual parties and their representatives) on various online platforms (in the media and on social networks). He pointed out significant differences in the media and information preferences of members of different age groups, which significantly affects their political behavior.
During the discussion, IVO experts answered questions from the audience.
Grigorij Mesežnikov and Juraj Buzalka gave an interview to the portal inforoznava.sk
