On July 25, 2025, IVO experts Oľga Gyárfášová, Grigorij Mesežnikov and Miroslav Kollár discussed with the participants of the Freedom Festival – Slovak Alternative Summer in Ábelová the factors of Slovak society’s resilience towards the influence of foreign authoritarian forces, the efforts of the current Russian regime and its allies to weaken the EU, to undermine the democratic system and Slovakia’s civilizational anchoring in the West. They discussed the current domestic political situation and the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic, the activities of democratic forces and civil society aimed at neutralizing the hybrid threats, and at preserving and strengthening the country‘s pro-Western orientation.
The event was organized by IVO in cooperation with the initiative Nie v našom meste (Not in Our City), platform Human Forum, Institute for Democracy of Banská Bystrica‘s Matej Bel University and initiative Mier Ukrajine (Peace for Ukraine) as part of the project IVO Road Show “Experts to the People”, supported by the Open Information Partnership (OIP). The expert discussion was moderated by Braňo Závodský (Radio Expres). 70 citizens from several cities and municipalities of Slovakia (Ábelová, Zvolen, Lučenec, Banská Bystrica, Rimavská Sobota, Brezno, Čierna nad Tisou, Liptovský Mikuláš, etc.) were present.
Grigorij Mesežnikov spoke about the connection between the basic trends in the country‘s domestic political development (the way of governance, compliance with legal norms, the degree of political and ideological polarization, overall trust in institutions etc.) and the resilience of society to external threats. The state system of strategic communication plays an irreplaceable role in the country‘s ability to resist adverse external influences, especially the activities of foreign authoritarian forces, however it is currently de facto dysfunctional in this segment of activities, that is why non-state actors – non-governmental organizations and independent media outlets – are trying to substitute its activities. They point out the harmfulness of normalizing the ideas that go beyond the framework of foreign policy priorities related to Slovakia‘s membership in the EU and NATO.
IVO president pointed out that the real performance of Slovak foreign policy has today deviated from the previous pro-European and pro-Western line. This change causes the exclusion of the Slovak Republic from the common approaches of the West, the deterioration of relations with allies and the decline in Slovakia‘s credibility among partners. This was particularly evident in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war and relations with Ukraine. Slovakia has not become part of the European “coalition of the willing” that unites the states prepared to support Ukraine in the long term and to strengthen their own defence capabilities.
Oľga Gyárfášová focused on factors influencing the opinions of Slovak citizens related to democracy and pro-Western orientation and to resilience to adverse external influences. She pointed out the opinion-forming role of political actors, the ways in which they address supporters. She characterized as risky the behaviour of some politicians who, within the framework of appeal to voters, play communication games with various “alternative“ solutions in the area of foreign and security policy (for example, the possibility of leaving the EU, or declaring a referendum on leaving the NATO, etc.) with the aim of increasing their own support among the population, not realizing that the development initiated in this way subsequently takes on a life of its own and can lead to unexpected and perhaps even originally unintended results (she cited Brexit as an example).
Miroslav Kollár characterized the situation in the Slovak media environment in the context of the country‘s resilience to hostile information influence from outside and to attempts to influence unfavourably the democratic development and pro-Western foreign policy direction. He relied on current data from surveys on the main sources of information for various socio-demographic groups (electronic and print media, online platforms, social networks, and social media). He paid special attention to public media.
