Romani Union of Slovakia accuses ex-PM of corrupting the electoral process, Romani MEP files his own crime report against them for spreading false allegations
The Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) movement of ex-PM Igor Matovič is clashing with the Romani Union of Slovakia (Unie Romů na Slovensku), which is alleging that Romani voters in some regions were manipulated into casting their votes for OLaNO en masse during the early elections to Parliament in September. Allegedly, a campaign promise was made to pay EUR 500 each to Romani voters casting their ballots for OLaNO; the party ultimately ended up in opposition and has since changed its name to Slovakia (Slovensko).
The Romani Union of Slovakia has filed a criminal report explaining that OLaNO allegedly deceived Romani voters with the campaign promise. Matovič’s movement is rejecting the suspicions of corruption and has also filed a criminal report against the Romani Union of Slovakia, alleging that they are spreading false information about alleged vote-buying.
Ahead of the election, Matovič conditioned his movement’s eventual participation in any new governing coalition by saying they would only join if the state paid all voters EUR 500. However, the Romani Union of Slovakia alleges that OLaNO politicians knowingly lied to impoverished Romani voters during their campaign, taking advantage of them by promising they would receive that amount of money if they voted for OLaNO in particular.
The Romani Union of Slovakia is also alleging that some Romani voters who believed these promises borrowed money from loan sharks in anticipation of a payoff that they now have problems repaying. “Matovič and the Pollák followers consciously, grossly committed fraud and took advantage of poor Roma. They knew those voters would never be able to comprehend their deceptive promises in precise terms and that they were winning votes from those who hoped to acquire financial resources quickly and simply,” said František Tanko, chair of the Romani Union in Slovakia, in a press release sent to news server Romea.cz in the Czech Republic.
Matovič’s movement rejects these reproaches. “We have never bought any votes. Romani people know our name, and no political party has done more for this community during its existence than the Slovakia movement,” says MEP Peter Pollák, who is himself Romani.
“The Roma have come to their senses. For whom should they cast their ballots? Should they vote for the people who abuse them, for those who are racists, should they vote for liberals who have never visited a Romani settlement? They voted for us because we have been canvassing the Roma intensively for more than 15 years,” Pollák said.
Pollák’s son, who already was a lawmaker, and three other Romani candidates successfully ran on the OLaNO ticket in September. One of those candidates, Slovak MP Lukáš Bužo, says the promise to pay voters was the condition on which the movement would join a governing coalition and that voters from the settlements where the candidates campaigned knew that was the case.
In some municipalities where Romani minority members reside and vote, the coalition led by OLaNO dominated the elections. Pollák has announced that the Slovakia movement has filed a criminal report against the Romani Union of Slovakia.
“We are filing a criminal report against the Romani Union and all those who continue to allege that we bought Romani votes. We are filing a criminal report because we have been falsely accused of having manipulated Romani people ahead of the elections,” Pollák explained.
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Some Slovak politicians criticized Matovič’s demand for a payout to voters in exchange for his movement eventually joining a coalition government. Had the idea been executed, it would have cost roughly EUR 1.5 billion, or more than 6 % of last year’s expenditures from the state budget.
According to the media in Slovakia, it was exactly the Romani voters who aided Matovič’s movement with getting into Parliament at all. The coalition of OLaNO and another two small parties won 8.89 % of the vote and needed at least 7 % to be seated.
In 2020, OLaNO won the elections with 25 % of the vote and Matovič became Prime Minister. Due to disputes with the liberal Freedom and Solidarity party (Svoboda a Solidarita – SaS), Matovič resigned after about a year in office and became Finance Minister, a position he later lost as well.
It was exactly the disputes between Matovič and the SaS that led to the collapse of the governing coalition and the need for new elections. Robert Fico is now serving his fourth premiership with the winning Směr-sociální demokracie party (Direction – Social Democracy) in Slovakia.
