What traits should a perfect leader have and why Slovakia needs one?

My name is Alex, I’m a 16-year old student of journalism and I want to study politology at a University. After that, I’ll consider my career, but I reckon I’ll work as an investigative journalist writing about politics, though I might actually become a politician someday as well.

So here’s how I think a perfect politician should look. But first, let’s talk about my country.

Growing up in Eastern Slovakia could be very hard for a lot of people - mostly for gypsies. There are a lot of slums, but the most famous place in my city, that’s completely ruined is Luník IX. It’s a place where a lot of gypsies live. And it isn’t only ruined because of them.

Instead of helping them, our government stole everything (not only) from them, and even said a lot of racist things, which evoked extremist thoughts in people’s minds, and made fascists more popular than ever.

Instead of assisting the poor in the east by donating to ambitious developers, they gave it to their mafia members. Mainly agro-dotations, which were held by Antonino Vadala. Prime Minister also said, that “There is nothing on the East” as a response to agro-dotations being stolen on the east. Well, there could be something on the east, if the government actually cared.

In my country, we had leaders with strong connections to Italian mafia called ‘Ndrangheta for around 12 years. Not only they had connections and contacts on mafia, but they were the mafia. Even the ex prime-minister was accused by police for forming an organized criminal group. Everyone in my country knew, that the prime minister and all other ministers were on top of the mafia. Including the police, which couldn’t do anything about it - as they were controlled by an organized group from Nitra, with the Bödör family on top. According to those who betrayed the mafia, Norbert Bödör and ex-prime minister Robert Fico were on the same position.

I don’t want to write about our political state, but I think it is kind of important to understand my thoughts and my expectations for the perfect politician, with the perfect political party.

On February 2018 a Slovak investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak, was killed with his fiancé, Martina Kusnirova. The reason he was murdered? He wrote. Jan uncovered the secrets of mafia in our country, he uncovered the connections of ‘Ndrangheta to our government, but most importantly - he wrote about Marian Kocner.

To not waste any of your time, Marian Kocner is now being investigated by the police for ordering the murder of Jan Kuciak. I haven’t seen the case files, but it seems like everything is heading to Kocner, who is currently in jail because of business with TV Markiza. Why is he so important? Well, because he (probably) ordered a murder on a very young journalist, committed multiple tax evasions and other crimes,- but the most important thing is, that he is a very good friend of Kalinak, who was minister of home affairs, and probably a good friend with Fico as well, as they lived in the same building. Their flats were worth about 1 million euros — something, that a prime minister and a businessman like Kocner can’t afford. Interesting thing is, that Kocner and a lot of other mafia members called Robert Fico Boss. The whole situation of former government is very suspicious and dark. There were probably many lives taken away because of this government,- and I’m not even talking about ex prime minister Meciar, who is pretty much the father of all mafias in Slovakia.

And now, in 2023, we are in quite a similar situation, although not everyone in the government is in mafia, like it was before. The Prime Minister Heger is weak, controlled by ex prime minister and current minister of finances Igor Matovic, who is the leader of the party OLANO, which Heger was part of. I believe, that they had good intentions and would actually fight corruption, but they are governing with Sme Rodina, which is a political party full of people with connections to mafia, with an ex-mafia member as leader. But the biggest problem I have with this government is that it’s giving away money, that will be needed in the future and that they are very conservative. The only liberal party that was in the government left, mostly because of Igor Matovic.

[UPDATE: Igor Matovic resigned and a few months later Heger resigned too, which caused the government to "fall", therefore we have a new "office government" which is led by our president - Zuzana Caputova]

Because I am not an expert on Slovak politics or law, I must admit that much of what I said is based on my own assumptions and deductions. Even though I’ve read a few books about our current political situation, I don’t think I should speak about it as if I were there. But I think it’s pretty interesting, and important to know how to choose a perfect politician. If you want to read more about our situation, or the murder of Jan Kuciak, I recommend reading articles from Denník N, Denník SME and Aktuality.sk, where Jan Kuciak worked.

Now that you know that my country was (and practically still is) full of mafia, scammers and criminals with power you can probably guess what kind of politician I would like to see in the Prime Minister’s seat.

Anti Corruption

It might seem like a matter of course, but it’s actually rarer than a diamond in my country. There are so many political parties that were accused of corruption, that I would appreciate an Anti-Corruption campaign so much. Not only empty words, but also real acts, and steps to become a better country. I think the police in our country are so rotten, that it’s going to be very hard to heal them. I can imagine, that if we didn’t have any corrupt governments, we would be on the same economic level as Czechia, or even Germany, as the estimated amount of money stolen by Fico’s government is around 30 billion euros. We need a government that will fight corruption and the mafia and possibly bring those 30 billions back because we desperately need them to develop the east. Corruption kills innocent people.

Liberalism

This could actually be as important as the first condition. We’ve had conservative governments for so long, that the country’s desperate for liberal politics. No matter what. We never had such a conservative, Christian-based politics like now and I personally think that they’re ruining everything. They are trying to make every law in accordance with the Bible, even though the Constitution of the Slovak Republic says, that

The Slovak Republic is a sovereign, democratic legal state. It is not tied to any ideology, or religion.

Well, it was never actually true, but nowadays the government wants the moral principals to be based on a religion. The sad thing about this is, that citizens don’t do anything to stop it, as most of the population is Christian.

I have no problem with theists, or theism, but I think it shouldn’t be applied on law, because we can’t forget, that there are also a lot of atheists, who do not care about religious moral principals and just want to live freely and happily, unlike the followers of Jesus, who believe in this fairy tale out of fear,- which is also how they’re spreading their loving Christianity. Ironic, isn’t it?

But the thing is, we only have a few liberal political parties, and only two of them actually have the ambition to win the election. But although I am a liberal, I’m not satisfied with one of the parties, SaS. I think the leader, Richard Sulik, is very revengeful, and sometimes acts like a little kid. And the other political party? Well, it doesn’t have enough preferences to win the election with enough percentage to form a coalition alone, so they would have to rule with conservatives. The most mournful thing about our politics is, that people would actually give their votes to former mafia members and fascists. They would rather have a dictator and a criminal as a leader, than a liberal.

Expert

I don’t remember the last time that we had an expert as the leader. We need someone, who understands what he’s doing, and who can actually lead and be a boss who has a lot of ministers and other workers under him. Someone, who understands economics, law and politics.

It’s really hard to find such a person, because people in Slovakia would rather vote for a populist politician, who’d give them 30 euros a year and steal millions from them. They always vote for the loudest ones, for those, who criticize but do nothing. Slovaks forget a lot, and don’t really care - that’s the reason why Robert Fico is the most popular politician in the country.

When someone says Expert I also imagine someone who doesn’t make or change laws based on their beliefs, but rather on good intentions, while being advised by professionals about every individual topic.

Personality

I think this is a huge part of a political campaign. Some politicians are too serious; others are too funny. I would probably never vote for someone who is serious all the time, and can’t understand humor, or laugh at times. On the other hand, I also would not vote for someone who is too funny, and not serious even in situations, where he should be.

I think this is something, that should be somewhere in the middle. A politician who can make fun of situations, of themselves and who’s actually interesting and fun to listen to. The issue is, that he also has to be serious, on situations that call for it. A lot of politicians do not understand these boundaries, and aren’t serious at all, and if you catch them lying, their response would be “It was sarcasm,” or “It was just a joke.”

Empathy

Something, that politicians love to act as if they have it. Being empathic towards all groups of people living in a country is very difficult, nearly impossible, but someone, who wants to rule and control lives of millions of people has to feel empathy for every single person. He should have feelings for both the poor gypsy and the wealthy Muslim.

I don’t think, that capitalism is perfect, but it is definitely better than communism, and its twin — socialism. But as someone, who doesn’t understand economics at all, I can only express my opinion based on articles and books I’ve read.

I think, that socialism is more empathic kind of politics, but capitalism is more liberal and free way to live life. And as someone, who doesn’t want people to starve, but also doesn’t want the state to control the economy of individuals, I can only say, that I reckon that we should put capitalism and socialism together. I think that this mix is currently used, but not in the right way.

Summary

Well, to sum it up…

Slovakia needs a liberal leader who understands his position, and doesn’t rule based on his morals or beliefs, but rather on his advised opinions and facts provided by professionals from different fields.

Not only he (or she, of course) has to be liberal, they also have to fight corruption and mafia and understand economics and laws. I don’t comprehend why should someone who doesn’t understand law at all create laws.

It has to be a sympathetic, preferably young person who doesn’t take everything seriously, but also knows the boundaries of fun.

Not to forget a perfect leader must have empathy for his citizens. All of them. No matter what — he shouldn’t care about their sexuality, or religion.

We shouldn’t vote for people, who robbed our country and killed tens of innocent people. We oughtn’t vote for people, who hold extremist and fascist thoughts and opinions, because we would regret it soon.

We need someone, who loves our country, who loves its people, and who loves Europe. Because that's what really matters. Love.