preložiť They put Slovakia in debt, says Hlas on billboards. But the numbers don't add up, the party is silent on campaign ethics
Hlas-SD is responsible for the billboards with the words "They have indebted Slovakia" that can be found all over the country. According to the campaign, former ministers or even people who have never governed Slovakia have left huge debts. However, the actual data contradicts these claims.
Slovakia was flooded with billboards with the heads of opposition politicians cut out and a big sign saying "they put Slovakia in debt". The billboards feature black-and-white photographs of former government officials - Igor Matovič, Jaroslav Naď and Richard Sulík, as well as the bureaucratic prime minister Ľudovít Ódor and even the chairman of the PS movement, Michal Šimečka, who was never in the government.
The billboard goes on to link to a website where it is possible to find the sums of money that the tax politicians are said to have deprived Slovakia of. Matovič allegedly "squandered" 1.6 billion, Naď 2 billion and Sulík 4 billion. In the case of Šimečka and Ódor, the site claims that the Slovaks would have lost 7 billion euros under their watch.
This political campaign is the responsibility of the coalition party Hlas-SD, or the Creo Advertising agency, with which the entity has been cooperating for a long time. However, the billboards and the related website raise at least ethical questions, warns the NGO Transparency International Slovakia.
It apparently does not respect the code of ethics
"A campaign that labels political rivals as gamblers responsible for billions of dollars in damages based on a lukewarm approach to the facts runs up against the ethical principles of campaigning," it writes in a post on the social networking site.
As Transparency International further explains, the Code of Ethics for Election Campaigns, which was prepared by the Public Relations Association prior to the parliamentary elections last year, states that political advertising should avoid unfair practices, manipulation of negative emotions and moods in society. It should be truthful, respectful of opponents, not misleading and use verified data and relevant sources of information.
The campaign of the Hlas-SD is implemented by Creo Advertising, which is not a member of this association.
It is also problematic that, even on closer examination of the billboard, it is not clear who is responsible for the campaign. The fact that it was commissioned by Hlas-SD can only be ascertained from the privacy statement on the linked website and from several advertisements on the party's Facebook profile.
The numbers don't add up
It is also not clear on what basis the authors of the campaign have calculated the sums that Slovakia has allegedly lost due to former government officials.
For example, the campaign blames former defence minister Naď for disarming the Slovak army and attributes €2 billion in damages to him. However, the Supreme Audit Office has previously calculated that Slovakia handed over military material worth around 700 million euros to Ukraine as part of its help with defence against the Russian invasion. Part of this money will be returned to the country from the European Peace Facility.
In the case of former Economy Minister Sulík, the website claims that he is responsible for "expensive energy". If the author of the campaign is referring to energy prices themselves, the claim does not quite make sense, as the minister has no influence on this factor. Prices are the responsibility of the Office for the Regulation of Network Industries (ÚRSO), but they are also based on the market prices of the commodities themselves.
However, the state coffers have been burdened by the across-the-board energy subsidy, which did indeed arise in the last parliamentary term. However, it still exists today and the government of Robert Fico has not yet attempted to change its functioning.
Similar problems appear in the rest of the arguments. However, their possible inaccuracy is insured by the author of the campaign by a formula at the very bottom of the website. "The content of this page may be fictitious and not correspond to actual events or characters. Information and descriptions may be embellished for the purpose of entertainment or artistic expression. Any similarities to real persons are coincidental," it warns.
Asked to answer questions about the campaign, ta3 reached out to Hlas-SD's communications department. We have not yet received a response. In case of a reply, we will add it to the article.
See the report on the indebtedness of the state: