While progressive President Zuzana Caputova supported the civil protests as a question of standing up for people’s values, some opposition leaders and commentators criticised the PS/Spolu politicians, arguing that their involvement brought more coverage and popularity to Marian Kotleba.

“The argument about bringing ‘attention’ to them will not stand anymore,” PS/Spolu leader Michal Truban said in a statement after the Trnava protest. “Kotleba’s people get space in the media on a regular basis now, they speak for Slovakia in the European Parliament, [and] government and opposition parties vote with them.”

Ignoring Kotleba when support for his party spikes is no longer possible, Truban added.

Analysts like Vilagi argue that limiting anti-fascist arguments to TV discussions and public statements is not enough.

Since undecided voters tend to get less information from mainstream media these days, images of demonstrations widely shared on social media might grab their attention, Vilagi said.

“It is important that people show that they’re willing to go to the streets and stand up to these political parties.”

It is important that people show that they’re willing to go to the streets and stand up to these political parties. – Vilagi

Others say it is more important to expose LSNS as a party with a neo-Nazi identity and violent history at a time when Kotleba’s politicians are careful to present themselves as respectable players.

“I’m afraid that pointing to the lack of competence of these people is simply not enough today,” Michal Vasecka, a sociologist at the Bratislava Policy Institute told the Dennik N daily.

LSNS started its campaign months before other parties, building on the success of rallies held ahead of elections last year for the European Parliament, in which it won two seats with 12 per cent of the vote.

Last summer, it organised family events in smaller villages, took children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds on trips into nature, toured Slovakia from one end to the other and studded the country with green billboards. Kotleba himself took part in several tractor races while his colleagues cooked goulash at local fairs.

In the late autumn of 2019, PS/Spolu started playing catch-up, launching door-to-door campaigns in smaller towns and villages where LSNS did well in previous elections.

PS/Spolu members say that in many villages they were the first politicians locals have seen in decades — or the only ones besides Kotleba who have bothered to visit. But they have also faced frustration on the doorstep, much of it fuelled by disinformation and xenophobia, they say.

“They are angry and they condemn the politics they have been seeing here for the past 12 years,” Vilagi said, referring to a string of corruption scandals and revelations of ties between business and top-tier politics, especially involving SMER-SD.

“And in an attempt to reject this kind of politics, they don’t just vote for the democratic opposition as an alternative but also for the anti-system party that is talking about radical solutions.”