The end of Slotaland?

Most people are saying that Slota's defeat is due to vanity. He just couldn't imagine losing and he didn't bother to campaign, trusting that people would recognise what was good for them. He did nudge them a bit in this direction with the new car park that offers free parking to the end of the year and moving the start of the Christmas festivities forward so that people would be able to look at the pretty lights (including a fireworks display) before the election.

The man certainly seems to have imagined he would be mayor forever. The picture above comes from the door of Zilina's old town hall, where he carved his name in deep letters.

Harman on the other hand had a surprisingly active campaign that was almost entirely negative, full of Slota's scandals. This is rare in local politics where even the most massive campaign tends to involve simply splashing your candidate's picture everywhere. Harman also introduced door-to-door campaigning, paying student's to deliver his leaflets by hand.

So what about the future? Obviously I'm happy that Slota has been punished for the scandalous way he ran the town. The city couldn't tolerate that viscious and blatantly corrupt style any more. On the other hand, it all rather reminds me of 1998. The bastards have only left office; no death blow has been struck. Slota will continue to have business connections with many important Zilina companies. He has his Goldwing palace right in the middle of town. And of course he also has his party in government and today in the paper he was wondering how Zilina will be affected by the loss of "synergy effects" from the cutting off personal contacts with big-spending ministers. Also, as in 1998, the incoming administration has to deal with a huge debt (as big as 2 billion SKK) while having won the election by highlighting expensive charges for public services (parking, bus fares) that it will probably now have to increase too. The new administration is likely to have its own corruption scandals (it's dominated by the SDKU) and although new mayor Harman is promising investigations and audits I can't see any legal action succeeding against Slota. So he could come back in 2010, depending on whether his party survives at a national level.