“The right-wingers like to fight against phantoms”: Interview with Slovakian author Michal Hvorecky

Michal Hvorecky, 49, is one of Slovakia’s most prominent authors and journalists and one of Central Europe’s most important voices in the fight against authoritarianism and right-wing extremism. His new book is called “Dissident” (Klett-Cotta-Verlag). Hvorecky, born in Bratislava, has been speaking and writing for years against the restructuring of the rule of law and the suppression of a free and colorful cultural and media scene in his home country. Robert Fico, who calls himself a social democrat, is prime minister there for the fourth time and governs together with the national-populist Slovak National Party (SNS). Hvorecky regularly appears as a speaker at the numerous protest events against the Fico government. In May he begins a reading tour through Germany.