More than a quarter century has passed since the United States called Slovakia a “black hole in the center of Europe” — an island of autocratic malaise surrounded by spry new democracies.
The insult, leveled in 1997 by Secretary of State Madeline Albright against a country that has since joined NATO and the European Union, still stings.
“We are back in a black hole; I’m not sure we ever got out of it,” said Roman Kvasnica, a prominent Slovak lawyer who denounces a political culture in which threats and personal insults are routine.
In his own legal work he has faced numerous threats, including a warning that he would get a “bullet in the head” from a tycoon charged with ordering the 2018 murder of an investigative journalist digging into government corruption.
Mr. Havel served as the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia, the state that in 1993 split amicably into the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia.
Persons:
spry, Madeline Albright, Robert Fico, Albright, ”, Roman Kvasnica, Vaclav Havel, Havel
Organizations:
NATO, European Union, Central, Mr
Locations:
United States, Slovakia, Europe, Central European, Slovak, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Republic of Slovakia