The presidential elections in Slovakia as an example of «negative selection» of European leaders

The process of degradation of Europe’s political elites is becoming increasingly evident. There is a very worrying trend of very dubious figures coming to power in the countries of the continent, often deprived of the necessary set of qualities for a national leader and simply blatantly illiterate, but totally devoted to the ideas of Euroatlanticism. They successfully pass through the sieve of democratic elections. How such a mechanism works to rise to the top of the power pyramid of ungovernable figures is considered on the example of presidential elections in Slovakia in 2014 and 2019. In both cases, in the second round, on the one hand, authoritative politicians, and on the other — political nobodies who, however, became victors. The reason for this is that these politicians are not acceptable to the Western mainstream because of their autonomy in choosing a political course and being deployed in favor of their opponents by a massive media campaign. The uccess of such a scenario calls into question the effectiveness of elections in terms of recruitment for public administration.