BRATISLAVA, July 19, (WEBNOVINY) — The quality of democracy in Slovakia has been continually improving after the government of Iveta Radicova came into office a year ago and achieved the level from early 2008 in the first half of 2011, as suggested in the IVO Barometer project published on Tuesday. The think-tank IVO prepared the project which awarded the mark 2.6 to Slovakia’s democracy using the 1.00 to 5.00 grade scale. The grade 1 stands for the optimal status.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, the overall assessment improved by 0.2. IVO analysts see the quality having improved in all areas except of human and minority rights. However IVO President Grigorij Meseznikov said he observes also hopeful trends with minority rights including the establishment of the Cabinet Council for National Minorities and Human Rights and wider participation of citizens in debates on public topics.
Nevertheless, the IVO head criticized the attitude to the solution of the Roma issue, which was the main reason why the assessment in the human rights sphere could not improve. He slams the use of the term ‘Roma criminality’ as he believes that it indicates unequal treatment based on ethnic affiliation. ”As long as this distinguishing persists, our evaluation will be strongly critical,“ said Meseznikov. IVO gave the 2.75 grade to the Slovak democracy in the area of human rights.
In the category ‘democratic institutions and rule of law’ Slovakia improved its rating by 0.25 to 2.5. Meseznikov explained the failure to achieve more considerable progress in this sphere to confrontations among state institutions, namely between the ministries of finance and justice on the one hand and the Supreme Court on the other while now he observes the clash, in which the government and parliament clashes with President Ivan Gasparovic and the Constitutional Court. The sides differ on the election and appointment of the new prosecutor general.
Meseznikov blames disagreements between top constitutional institutions on Gasparovic and the Constitutional Court. He thinks that some decisions of the Constitutional Court are at least problematic though he admits exceptions represented by stances of four of its justices who he believes save the reputation of the institution. He labeled the development of the prosecutor general case unprecedented and the attitude of the head of state extremely inappropriate. In this point Slovakia found itself back in the Communist era, says Meseznikov, who however hopes that tensions will not escalate further.
On the other hand, Meseznikov was positive about fewer cases of expedited legislative proceedings and indirect amendments of laws. The rating for the legislative sphere was 2.25, an improvement by 0.25 grade.
In the media independence sphere IVO praised more professionalism in relations between journalists and the political elite. Open defamation of the journalist profession and verbal and later also court pressure were replaced by exchanges of opinions via media, suggests the IVO report rating the media sphere with 2.7, up 0.25.
SITA