[WORLD NEWS ★★]
ARE NEO-NAZIS ON THE RISE IN SLOVAKIA?
(P1) Slovakia was HAUNTED by ghosts of its past after far-right MILITANTS wearing UNIFORMS modelled on a second world war Nazi PUPPET STATE won seats in PARLIAMENT for the first time.
(P2) The People’s Party – Our Slovakia group led by Marian Kotleba (above), the GOVERNOR of central Slovakia, took 8% of the vote, nearly three times more than POLLS had predicted.
(P3) Slovakia’s PRIME MINISTER, Robert Fico, did win Saturday’s parliamentary election. But gains by opposition parties including the far right will make it difficult to form a new government.
(P4) If Fico fails to put together a government led by his leftist Smer party, a group of centre-right parties could try to form an anti-Smer COALITION.
(P5) Fico took 28.3% of the vote, far ahead of other candidates, but still less than he had hoped for.
(P6) Members of Kotleba’s “Slovak brotherhood” party, dressed in black uniforms REMINISCENT of the Nazi-era Hlinka guard, first appeared at RALLIES COMMEMORATING the 1939-45 Slovak state led by a Catholic priest, Jozef Tiso, who had tens of thousands of Slovak Jews sent to Nazi death camps. This first Kotleba party was DISBANDED for spreading hatred in 2006.
(P7) Kotleba founded a new party, changed his uniform for a BLAZER, and replaced war rallies with anti-ROMA, anti-immigration, and anti-corruption RHETORIC.
(P8) His party rejects suggestions of links with Nazi IDEOLOGY.
(P9) “We are not FASCISTS or NEO-NAZIS although we might appear EXTREMIST compared to other parties,” one of its newly elected lawmakers, Milan Uhrik, said.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
If you found the passage difficult to read or had problems understanding specific words or idiomatic expressions, please discuss them with your tutor. The following discussion questions should be answered in your own words and with your own arguments.
- Briefly summarize the content of the article in your own words.
- Do you have a good understanding of the differences between right, center, and left in politics?
- Are there any extreme political parties or movements in your country?
- Does your country have a parliamentary political system, or another type?
- The “ghosts of Slovakia’s past” referred to in the article’s first paragraph date back to the World War II era. What happened in your country at that time?
EXPRESSIONS TO PRACTICE:
What do the following expressions mean? Practice using each expression in a sentence; extra points if you can use it in conversation.
- Puppet state
- Prime minister
- Neo-Nazi
