Christians in the political arena

The Slovak citizens will face three significant challenges in regard to politics in 2014 – presidential election due to be held on 29 March, election of new members of the European Parliament planned for 24 May, and municipal election that will take place on 21 June. The Christian organisations and associations are well aware of the fact that these moments can influence the future direction of our country on many levels. That’s why they have organised a range of educational meetings with citizens currently in course in various regions of Slovakia, to discuss the role of Christians in politics. Danka Jaceèková interviews polimetrician Ivan Ronèák from the national office of Transparency International. How would you describe a current political situation face to face with the “election year” in Slovakia? “We witness a battle to disallow the domination of one political party – whether it will occupy all posts in the constitutional institutions or not. This is the main matter of interest among the candidates for the presidential office. They race for the biggest chance to enter the second round of the election and to defeat current prime minister Robert Fico who is one of the candidates. Unfortunately, we don’t witness a battle of values here. It seems that the public discussion reduces to solely personal question – whether Fico will become a president or not. If we speak about the European parliamentary election, we can say that our citizens are not very excited about the issue. It will most probably be perceived more as a sort of ‘obligatory exercise’ for the political parties and their supporters, instead of a moment that would significantly move the figures on the Slovak political chessboard. It seems that Slovaks realize how small our country is and that there’s no real chance of our national deputies in EP to intervene significantly in Pan-European politics”. Let’s talk about the role of Christian laity in a public life of the society. What would be an ideal condition and what is the reality in this regard? “If Christians feel a vocation to enter public space, they should go for it. We believe that we get talents from God and we’ll have to account one day for how we have dealt with them during our life. That’s why, if a Christian feels that he has been given a gift for the involvement in public matters, he must follow this vocation. If he doesn’t feel the vocation, his presence in this area would become suffering and what is more, he would send out a message that a Christian politician is not a good politician. In this regard, the Christians are not any different comparing to other citizens”. Politics as a tool of enforcement of Christian values in the society – is this model possible? How does it look like in Slovakia? “The rules forming the society, the rules that set the framework for its functioning, can only be established through the involvement in politics, that’s the reality. It’s a duty of Christians who are gifted for it to enter the public space, to use all morally acceptable tools to get the support of the voters and other political groups with aim to gain power and create the rules of functioning of the society according to Christian vision and ideals. I need to say that in Slovakia, there is an absence of ability of Christian politicians to use modern methods of acquisition of the support of the voters and to use also the methods with which the non-Christian politicians have no problem at all”. The Church is often asked not to interfere in politics and public matters. What to you think of this request as a politically and socially active layman? “The Church is not some distant and unknown body, it is formed by the faithful. We need to realize that the politics is the only way to form the social rules. If we recoil, we give up a chance to influence these rules, and this is not good nor right”. What are the possibilities of the Church to mobilize the Catholics in this regard? “The Church should emphasize the duty of faithful to engage in politics, if they are gifted for this kind of activity by God. It should be explained that the politics is the only way to participate in establishment of social rules. It could also play a positive role in purification of politics in the eyes of the public. We need to say that the politics is not a mud where we can only get dirty, but a very important public service”. Let’s have a look at Christians as voters. What attitude should they have towards the politicians who claim to be of Christian faith but make too many compromises in their value system? “In public space, the victory of goodness over evil means to sum up small individual decisions that may be visibly not related to one another. The citizens do not give their vote to some abstract idea, but to its implementation in practice. In other words it means that we vote for concrete decisions of the politicians, not for their declarations. It’s simple – if the citizen has an experience that some candidate does not fulfill his promises or makes unacceptable compromises, he doesn’t vote for him”.