There is a word Slovaks can teach the world: papalá?ism

Source: Slovak Spectator

Miroslav Beblavy wrote a book about papalá?ism in Slovakia. In this interview he explains what shocked him about it the most.

Military ranks granted to politicians; university diplomas received under dubious circumstances; cars with drivers and blue lights even for mid-ranking state officials. Using and abusing the perks that a state post brings has a special name in Slovak.

The Slovak Spectator spoke to Miroslav Beblavy, who after he failed to make it to parliament in March, set out to write a book entitled The New Nobility, about the practice of papalá?ism in Slovakia.

Whoever engages in that practice is then called papalá? [papalash] - “a person, nearly always a man, who not only made it high up, but also excessively enjoys his position. Other rules apply to him in comparison to others, even though we are all contributing to his way of life,” as he defined it in the book.

There are the English words “big cheese” or “cronyism”, but there is no precise word for this behaviour that is usually not illegal, not necessarily corrupt, but it qualifies as abusing a public office.

“It is one of the contributions of the Slovak language to the global vocabulary,” Beblavy said.

Anyone who has ever served in a public office for a while has most likely done something of this sort. Beblavy himself admits that when he still had immunity as an MP, he would not insist on paying a speeding fine if the police officers who stopped him for speeding would recognise him.

“That’s something I don’t think people should be doing, and that’s why I voted for abolishing immunity,” Beblavy said. Since 2012, MPs no longer have immunity from offences like that, but some still get away with pulling their MP card when stopped by the police.

Even though he has spent a big part of his adult life in and around politics, and has had first-hand experience with papalá?ism, Beblavy admits some of his findings still managed to surprise him.

Blue lights that mark a papalá?

The blue lights on official cars, often seen overtaking morning traffic, were one of the findings.

“You don’t have to abide by any rules with a blue light on a car. The only exception is that you cannot be intoxicated,” Beblavy noted.

He found that in the 1990s and later under the two Mikulá? Dzurinda governments (in the latter of which Beblavy was a member as state secretary, or deputy minister), only ministers and the president had the right to use blue lights. Smer’s interior minister Robert Kaliňák changed the law to grant himself the right to give the blue light licence to essentially anyone, Beblavy found out. According to him, there are now 266 additional lights, on top of those used by ministers, the president, the police and first responders.

“In several ministries there are five to six cars like that even for mid-ranking people,” Beblavy said.

Papalá?ism continues

When Beblavy started writing his book in mid-March 2020, when the current government of Igor Matovi? (O?aNO) replaced the long-ruling Smer in power, he thought he was going to report the story of limited progress in Slovakia.

“Only as I was writing this book did I see how comprehensively the Smer government made things worse on this front,” he said. Back in March, he also believed the new government was going to bring a major change in the attitude to papalá?ism, but about 90 percent of the practices were retained, and some were made worse, he estimated.

“There is much more continuity than rupture in this, unlike with corruption. What we see under this government is that the high-level corruption of the previous governments seems to be punished, but I don’t see an improvement in these smaller abuses and political culture, and that’s really saddening.”

Slipping into these practices seems to be too easy - you get offered a nice car, a special plane, or other perks.

“You actually need to actively resist it, and it’s easy not to. So I think a lot of them are just not resisting, and taking it for granted.”

Matovi? fails to set an example

Another issue is that the Matovi? government also has people who see power the way Smer governments used to see it - as a perk to be enjoyed rather than as a service you are “hired” to do. Boris Kollár is a big example, but there are many other small examples, too, Beblavy said.

“To be fair to PM Matovi?, he personally is much less guilty of that than the others,” Beblavy said and noted that he actually lauded Matovi? for ordering the costly prime-ministerial villa to be returned in his book. “But he did not really set the example for others. He personally does not abuse his office, but he does not protest when others do. He is more of a passive observer, letting it go, and others are happy doing it.”

What worries him about the prime minister in this regard is his plan to start a government newspaper, which Beblavy calls an example of “unacceptable political culture.”

The love of academic titles

The first major scandal of the Matovi? government was linked to the plagiarised theses of Sme Rodina leader Boris Kollár and of the prime minister himself. Dubious academic titles have been an issue in Slovak politics for years, but Beblavy says politicians are only the tip of the iceberg. They are the ones who either do it more aggressively or who are more likely to be uncovered.

In the love of conspicuous academic titles, Slovaks are part of a broader central-European trend, shared with Czechs, Austrians, and to some extent Germans, according to Beblavy.

“Using education as a status marker is not necessarily a bad thing, and it was helpful in creating a pro-education culture in the past. But the problem that we are facing in the last 25 years is that it has become much easier to just purchase an academic title, and those who really want it can actually buy it.”

It is a disease that excludes no one - it has happened with politicians from all parts of the political spectrum, at really bad private schools but also at the best public universities.

When it comes to papalá?ism, Beblavy is a stern critic of the current government. Some dismiss him as merely trying to get back at politicians who were more successful in the election than he was with the Progressive Slovakia and Spolu coalition, which missed the parliamentary threshold by several hundreds of votes in the February 2020 election, making it one of the several surprises of that election.

“I had wanted to write this for quite some time, but I realised that to write the book well, you need time and you never have that when you’re in high politics and in an election campaign,” he said.

He had had Boris Kollár in mind ever since he saw a tabloid article about his thesis, a long time before the 2020 election that lifted Kollár to the second highest constitutional post.

“Besides, Boris Kollár has shown his misjudgment and his permanent tendency towards papalá?ism are completely independent of me,” Beblavy said.

Anyone can become a papalá?

Despite its widespread and deep-rooted papalá?ism, Slovakia is a relatively egalitarian society with no political dynasties. Unlike some other countries, high places are not reserved for only a few families removed from others by virtue of their money, status, or social networks.

“Of course we do have a big problem with the social exclusion of some groups, so Slovakia is not a perfectly equal place, but it is a place where, if you show talent and hard work, it doesn’t really matter what family you are from. You can become a CEO or a prime minister.”

While he says that politicians need to be well-paid and focus on their work, there needs to be a reasonable limit for everything given, Slovakia being a country of just five million people that is not very rich.

“It is no problem when ministers have fancy cars with drivers, but in Slovakia people two levels below normally have this as well and that is unreasonable,” he said. Another thing he calls unreasonable is having four governmental planes, and points out that Slovakia actively bought them recently for €88 million, which equals the cost of a medium-size hospital. Austria, in contrast, has none, and an earlier attempt to purchase some caused a minor scandal in the then government.

“We should set clear reasonable limits and then enforce them,” Beblavy said. “We should try to look to Austria, Denmark, Estonia, and follow their standards.”

That does not necessarily mean this should become a big topic in Slovak politics, but a change is certainly needed, according to Beblavy, because papalá?ism sometimes creates a lot more distrust in public service and the political elite than big corruption.

“When I talk to people it is clear that they remember these small things more than some grand corruption schemes,” he said.

19. Dec 2020 at 7:41 | Michaela Terenzani