The year 2021 has been challenging and it has been marked by another pandemic wave, a political crisis and growing distrust among the public, President Zuzana Čaputová stated in her year-end review of 2021, adding that, hopefully, better times are coming. "Slovakia is damaged. It is suffering not only from covid, but also from a crisis of trust. We have gradually allowed our living space to be poisoned, and every year we find it harder to live in it. Social networks are filled with insults, hate rhetoric and misinformation," the president said.
According to her, respect is disappearing from personal relations, which has resulted in physical attacks on health workers. Meanwhile, communication among political representatives has been full of attacks on opponents. "It must be difficult for everyone to live in such an atmosphere, regardless of which side of the controversy they are currently on. What I find particularly distressing is when someone deliberately abuses people's fear of vaccination, for example, for their own political ends and thereby undermines our society's ability to confront the pandemic," she said. In the president's opinion, everyone pays the price for this in the end.
Addressing this year’s Cabinet overhaul, Čaputová claimed that she viewed it as the only possible solution to the political crisis at that time. She noted that a total of six ministers resigned, several coalition partners insisted that then prime minister Igor Matovič should be replaced and Parliament was not quorate. "It was necessary to put an end to the disputes and start dealing with the pandemic and its impacts," she remarked.
