In a somber tone, Boris Johnson warned the British people of the tragedy to come. Many more would lose their loved ones, he said. Many more would die. The date was March 12, 2020. It was a whole two months after the UK registered its first case. On that same day, Slovakia went into lockdown six days after its first registered case. The Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, and Slovenia – all having recently registered their first cases – followed Slovakia’s lead. While Western European countries dragged their feet, Central Europe acted. Quarantines, border closures, curfews – nationwide lockdown.

Not All Lockdowns Were Created Equal

Since then nearly every other European country has done the same. But not all lockdowns have been equal. As of April 23, the UK has over 270 Coronavirus deaths per million people. France 320, Italy 415, and Spain 464. Between these four countries, thousands still die every day. Meanwhile in Slovakia, less than 3 people have died per million citizens. Of the remaining Central European countries mentioned, Slovenia has the highest death rate with 38. Why have deaths for Western European countries been a whole order of magnitude higher than they have been for their less developed Central and Eastern European neighbors?

Explaining Western Europe’s Crisis

Plenty of explanations have been provided by astute Western commentators. The BCG vaccine, lack of tourism, under-reporting. Even Communism has been offered as an explanation. These dubious proposals miss a glaringly obvious observation. Far from being some wildly successful Central European experiment in need of explanation, these countries simply followed the lead of those who knew best – Asian countries.

Asia experienced SARS in the early 2000s, and then the novel coronavirus before the rest of the world in 2020. They were better prepared, and implemented quicker and more effective responses than anyone else. There was no need to experiment. Asia’s experience was there for all to follow. Small Central European states looked to China’s example and went into “Wuhan-style” lockdown as quickly as they could. Relative to the spread of the virus, Central Europe acted far, far quicker than Western Europe.

It Can’t Happen Here? Wrong

The true experiments, meanwhile, have been in Western European countries. Most notably Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden whose strategies are based on untested theoretical models which rely on unproven behavioral theories and have led them to either delay proven measures or not implement them at all. But even those Western countries not experimenting were crippled by thoughts of “it can’t happen here”, and failed to acknowledge the spread of the virus even long after it had begun. For weeks they patted themselves on the back for preserving democratic liberties as COVID-19 spread undetected. When it became clear how much they had misjudged the situation and they finally locked down, it was too late.

Complacency is Deadly

There is no excuse that can make up for the complacency that poisoned Europe. The strongest explanation for the prolonged inaction and denial is the deeply engrained sense of superiority that pervades in Western Europe to this day. The generation that leads Europe grew up in a wealthy and modern continent looking down on a China they saw as a poor and dirty country far away on the other side of the world. Now China is more modern than Europe and sits firmly at the heart of the most globalized world in history. Yet it seems like those two old perceptions of China blinded Europe not just to the threats posed by the virus, but to its proven responses too.

Besides lockdowns and contact tracing, the most symbolic of these responses is the face mask. Common in East Asia since SARS, many countries in the region have insisted the mass wearing of face masks is essential to stopping the spread of coronavirus. The WHO disagrees, but Central Europe has followed the lead of Asia, not the WHO. In late March, the Czech Republic and Slovakia made use of face masks in public mandatory. And, in what may become one of the era’s most iconic images, Slovakia’s President wore an elegant matching face mask as she swore in the new government. It was an early symbol of the new world to come.

What About Germany’s Relative Success in Battling COVID-19?

Central Europe’s largest and richest country – conspicuously omitted until now – has perhaps been the biggest coronavirus success story of all. Germany is the EU’s most populous country but boasts a surprisingly low death rate at 64 per million, despite having the fourth most recorded cases in the world. This is thanks to a South Korean inspired model – mass testing and tracing of infected people’s contacts. So-called ‘test and trace’.

Though Germany’s decentralized government means individual states implement measures at different points and to varying degrees, the overall strategy from the beginning has been one inspired by the East Asian experience. Now Germany is even relaxing its lockdown, but not without a further measure – face masks. Like its Czech and Austrian neighbors, and against the advice of the WHO, German states are demanding citizens wear face masks in public. And joining Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria are loosening up restrictions too. Central Europe — late to the pandemic — is slowly becoming the first to overcome it.

Post-Lockdown Means Social Distancing, Face Masks and Closed Borders

While the UK, Spain, and others in Western Europe still debate what emerging from lockdown will look like, Central Europe is already there. Social distancing, face masks, and closed borders. With idealism stripped back and replaced by pandemic realities, a new normal is developing in the heart of Europe. One that is built to last.

History books will not be writing about a great Central European experiment because there was none. With no other model to follow, Central Europe quickly looked to implement what had succeeded in East Asia. For the smaller, less well-off states it meant lockdowns and homemade face masks. For the larger and wealthier, mass testing and contact tracing. Either way, the result is the same. Thousands of deaths avoided, and probably a more stable long-term equilibrium.

History may not be so kind to Western European leaders. With greater means they achieved far less and with the consequences of the virus clear they waited too long to act. Some eventually realized their mistakes and belatedly began to implement necessary measures, while others have turned their countries into nationwide social experiments. And again, the result is the same. Tens of thousands of entirely avoidable deaths. Central Europe listened to Asia. Western Europe did not — and it is suffering the consequences.

L'articolo Central Europe Listened to Asia, Western Europe Didn’t proviene da InsideOver.

It starts on a cold Wednesday in winter 2018. At a little after 4:30 on February 21, two men in a Citroen Berlingo arrive in the small Slovak village of Vel’Ká Mača (around 40 miles from Bratislava). They wait until 6:30 before Tomas Szabo leaves driver Miroslav Marček and walks off into the night.

Like a grim scene from a Coen Brothers movie, the ill-starred Szabo arrives at the house of his target, investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, and finds it empty.

Meanwhile, Kuciak, 27, a reporter with Bratislava – based news portal Aktuality.sk had arrived home by train from the capital and discovered his car had a flat battery. He called his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, also 27, to pick him up from the station.

Undeterred, Marček, a former soldier, and Szabo, a former police officer, remained patient. Szabo returns to the house two hours later. This time he finds Kuciak and his fiancée at home and shoots them both dead.

Ján Kuciak was the first journalist murdered in Slovakia since the country became independent on January 1, 1993, and it shocked the nation.

His recent work had focused on investigating tax fraud and the misappropriation of European funds, and he had also written about corruption at government levels.

The last piece published before his death was released on February 9, 2018, when he provided a detailed account of VAT tax fraud implicating well-known, wealthy and well-connected Slovak businessman Marián Kočner.

At the time of his death, Kuciak was working on a story that has been described as ‘sensational’. He had linked the Slovak government, led at the time by Prime Minister Robert Fico, to a group of Italian businessmen allegedly members of an organised crime syndicate.

One name that featured prominently in Kuciak’s investigation was Antonino Valdala believed to be a member of ‘Ndrangheta’, a well known mafia-style operation based in Calabria.

Editor-in-Chief of Aktuality.sk, Peter Bardy, fearing for Kuciak, texted his reporter a couple of days before his murder to ask him if he felt at risk or if he wanted a ‘safe house’.

Ironically, Kuciak said he didn’t feel under any threat.

The murders caused uproar and inspired the formation of ‘For A Decent Slovakia ‘. The Slovak people believed the murders were related to Kuciak’s work and linked to political corruption, and came out onto the streets in their thousands to protest.

“When we found out that Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová were killed,” Eva Lavríková, spokeswoman of ‘For A Decent Slovakia’ told Inside Over. “Our first reaction was to show we don’t want to live in a country where something like this – to kill a journalist because of his work – is possible.”

The country descended into political chaos and on March 15, 2018, Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Interior Minister Robert Kalinak resigned. A month later, in the wake of the Kuciak and Kusnirova killings and questions about the initial investigation, Czech-born, Tibor Gašpar, President of the Police of Slovakia also stepped down.

“Our initiative was… at first simply an organic, spontaneous reaction to current events,” Lavrikova remembered “Later on, when we saw how our politicians reacted, we realised that if we really want to live in a better, decent society, it’s a long-term commitment and we all need to do something. We aim to be an active society which can stand for democratic principles.”

Posthumously, Kuciak was changing Slovak history.

Perhaps stirred by protests and resignations, the police investigation into the murders of Kuciak and Kušnírová led to four arrests in September 2018 and the story started to unravel.

Small-time pizzeria entrepreneur Zoltán Andruskó had been approached by Alena Zsuzsová, an Italian translator and go-between employee of Marian Kočner. Zsuzsová offered to pay Andruskó €50,000 and take care of Zoltan’s €20,000 of debt.

It was an offer the hapless Andruskó could not turn down. With little idea of how to assassinate anyone, he recruited Szabo and his cousin Marček to help him carry out the hit. The trail soon led back to Kočner who was arrested in March this year and charged with ordering Kuciak’s murder.

But, of course, and as ‘For A Decent Slovakia’ had recognised, this story goes right to the heart of government, and the fact that Kuciak had identified the presence of an Italian organised crime syndicate in Slovakia.

In August, 2019, Slovak newspapers started releasing the transcripts of hundreds of pages of texts leaked from the police investigation and related to Marián Kočner.

These texts link Kočner to Fico’s government. One message seems to show that the Slovak businessman is keen that the ruling party, Fico’s Smer-SD stay in power so that they all avoid: ‘ending up in jail’. Other messages reference meetings with ‘Squarehead’, Fico’s nickname.

A short time after the murders Kočner had texted of having breakfast in the Maldives with Bela Bugar, chairman of Most-Hid, Smer-SD’s coalition partners in government.

Both Fico and Bugar have tried to distance themselves from Kočner and his activities. Fico denies that any meetings, referred to in texts, ever took place, while Bugar now describes Kočner as ‘evil’.

Incredibly, and despite his fall from power Fico remains the leader of the ruling Smer-SD party. A situation that many see as draining the popularity of the party and leaving them vulnerable to defeat at the March 2020 elections, a mere six months away.

The former Prime Minister, however, is defiant, telling the people of Slovakia that: ‘he is not going away’.

Perhaps wary of new political factions like ‘For A Decent Slovakia’ and political parties like Progresivne Slovensko the government has pushed through a new law limiting the resources and private funding for parties. This will hit the new parties hardest and undermine their chances of unseating established groupings like Smer-SD.

Jan Kuciak’s work has taken Slovakia into a new politicised era. He was the inspiration underpinning ‘For A Decent Slovakia’ and like Fico, they have no intentions of ‘going away’ either.

“We were quite a random group of people from all around the country – every single one of us very different,” Eva explained the founding of ‘For A Decent Slovakia’. “But there is one important thing which all of us have in common: we do care about our country and our society.”

L'articolo Death of a Journalist: The Murder Of Ján Kuciak Sparks An Anti-Corruption Movement In Slovakia proviene da InsideOver.