On October 13, 2025, the Institute for Public Affairs in cooperation with club Bombura – Independent Cultural Space organized a public discussion in Brezno about the resilience of Slovak society towards external threats. IVO experts Oľga Gyárfášová, Miroslav Kollár and Grigorij Mesežnikov discussed with the citizens of the city. The event took place as part of the project IVO Road Show “Experts to People”, supported by the Open Information Partnership. The discussion was moderated by Juraj Pastorek. 

The discussion focused on various issues related to the ability of society and individuals to resist to attempts by foreign authoritarian states to weaken democratic institutions, to spread false historical narratives and to question the pro-Western foreign policy orientation. The debate focused on the role of various social actors (politicians, state representatives, civil activists, media), mostly on factors that complicate the current situation - low trust in institutions, lagging education, enduring stereotypical ideas about the country's development, the operation of the propaganda apparatus of foreign authoritarian states and domestic actors of foreign influence. The challenges for the resilience of Slovakia as a member state of the EU and NATO against external threats in a turbulent period of confrontation of democratic states with a coalition of authoritarian powers and their allies (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Venezuela, and until recently also Syria) were also discussed. 



Oľga Gyárfášová reported on the recent results of sociological surveys, which repeatedly confirm that the pro-Western attitudes of the citizens of the Slovak Republic in the area of foreign and security policy prevails and thus creates an important framework for a wide range of actors. However, in recent times, the contradiction between the inclination of the majority of the Slovak population to support membership in Western integration groups and the actions of the government forces, which have failed to actively participate in the creation of new forms of security cooperation of allies in Europe in the context of the increased threat of military-political expansion from the East, which is today a fundamental element in the policy of the Russian state, has become increasingly clear. The influence of foreign propaganda on the population of the country is all the stronger, the more actively its domestic actors are involved in its dissemination. This is also affected by statements or practical steps of politicians questioning the current pro-Western orientation of the state, including the admission of the possibility of the Slovak Republic leaving NATO and the EU. 

Grigorij Mesežnikov pointed out the problems in the implementation of Slovak foreign policy after October 2023. According to him  there is currently an obvious paradox: on the one hand, Slovakia is normalizing and even improving bilateral relations with the Russian Federation, which officially considers the Slovak Republic an enemy country, is waging an all-out war against Ukraine and a hybrid war against the democratic West as a whole, and is trying to dismantle the European Union and NATO from within, on the other hand, it has bad bilateral relations with neighboring Ukraine, which is fighting for its freedom and independence and at the same time protecting Europe, including Slovakia, from continuation of Russian expansion towards the West. The disruption of the state system of strategic communication, the weakening of the foundations of liberal democracy (the rule of law, transparent governance, human and minority rights, free media, civil society), the accommodating attitudes of representatives of government forces towards information content hostile to democracy and the West (often originating from Russian sources) – all this prevents society from increasing its resilience to threats coming from outside. 

Miroslav Kollár reported on the current state of the Slovak media and information scene. He pointed out the domestic and foreign policy contexts of the operation of various media or quasi-media platforms and projects. He spoke about the consequences of the spread of conspiracy theories and pro-Russian narratives for citizens' opinions on relevant issues of the country’s and society’s development – on foreign and defense policy, on perception of foreign states – both friendly and hostile, on the state's health policy (for example, on vaccination), on the functioning of state institutions, on the civic coexistence of people belonging to different groups (ethnic, religious, social, opinion, etc.).