The following speech by the prime minister of Slovakia is startling to anyone who was born and raised west of the Elbe.

The statements that Robert Fico makes to his fellow Slovaks are normal and commonsensical, and they would be commonplace in the West if Westerners had not been frightened and brainwashed into rejecting common sense. Not only does Mr. Fico describe the threat to European culture posed by the migrant “New Europeans”, who are mostly young men, he identifies the source of that threat as the Islamic ideology that the new arrivals bring with them.

Horrors! How dare he utter such “racist” and “xenophobic” sentiments?

The vigor of Mr. Fico’s stance may in part be credited to the history of Slovakia, which was a longtime province in the northeastern corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Slovakia did not gain independence after the dissolution of the empire in the wake of the Great War. Instead, under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 it was assigned to a composite state with the Czechs (and Ruthenians) by the power brokers who thought they knew what was best for the Slavs. Then came the Nazi occupation, and after World War Two forty years of Soviet domination as part of a Czechoslovak vassal state in the East Bloc.

Slovakia did not become an independent sovereign nation until 1993, less than a quarter-century ago. That sovereignty was hard-won, and is now prized by the Slovaks, which is why the prime minister returns again and again to the word: Slovakia has the sovereign right to control its borders, a sovereign state can refuse mandatory quotas of migrants for resettlement, and a sovereign nation has the right and right and responsibility to defend itself.

If only we could hear commonsensical words such as these west of the Elbe! Or the Atlantic, for that matter.

Many thanks to Xanthippa for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript (times from the original program on CNTV):

13:55 Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico

13:59 Dear Ladies and Gentleman — If it were not Paris, then it would be Germany and the events

14:04 from the end of this year which should open the eyes

14:08 of some people in Slovakia, but primarily it should be the answer to

14:13 the people who intentionally belittle safety risks.

14:17 I am taking about Mr. President. I am talking about the media. I am talking about opposition politicians.

14:21 Simply, that what had happened in Germany must open people’s eyes

14:25 and must be the answer to all in Slovakia that safety risks

14:30 are, simply, huge. Permit me to inform you that

14:34 a while ago, the German Secret Service announced the highest

14:39 threat to the West from the Islamists, higher than at the time of the attack on the

14:43 twin [towers]. This is not some nonsense from us; we are relying on news reports,

14:47 and we speak of them in a timely fashion, very clearly,

14:51 and first of all, preventively. I do not agree with the views that

14:56 governments should not share with the citizens of their own lands information regarding safety,

15:01 on safety issues. I repeat, the German Secret Service came out with this information.

15:05 Secondly, I think that the events in Germany and Paris

15:09 should be an answer to all those who insist that migrants with a different

15:13 religion, different traditions, will let themselves be integrated easily. They will not let

15:18 themselves be integrated easily. It is simply not possible. And this truth

15:23 we must speak. We see what ghettos arose in many countries.

15:27 In France, Belgium: the police will not even enter these areas.

15:32 An alternate lifestyle, a high level of criminality: simply,

15:36 it shows that the idea of a multicultural Europe has failed,

15:40 and that it is not possible to have a natural integration of people who have a different way of life

15:45 different thinking, different cultural background and, most of all,

15:49 a different religion. Further, that events in Germany and in Paris

15:54 should be the clear answer to those who say that mandatory quotas must be enacted.

15:58 We have heard it from some, in Slovakia: since it has been decided for them [the quotas], it is

16:02 necessary to put them in place. No. I answer: no mandatory quotas will not be enacted in Slovakia!

16:07 So it is the answer to those, who, till now,

16:11 have refused [to acknowledge] the fact that the vast majority of migrants are men from

16:16 25 to 35 years of age. In connection with the events in Germany, information has surfaced

16:20 that 80% of the migrants to Germany are men, and of these 80%, 80% are

16:24 are men 25 to 35 years of age.

16:29 Not to mention that these events in Germany and in Paris should be

16:33 the answer even to those in Slovakia who question safety measures

16:37 enacted in Slovakia: either the increase in the number of police, perhaps

16:41 anti-terror structures. We have set aside funds, increased the number of people

16:46 we deploy for the safety of the Slovak Republic in the fight against terrorism

16:50 and against the commission of criminal acts. We do accept this responsibility and we will,

16:54 in this spirit, take specific steps.

16:58 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Slovakia must be safeguarded

17:03 from the threats that unregulated migration brings with itself.

17:07 Nobody can accuse us of [denying] the security

17:12 threats and the connections between migration and terrorism

17:16 we spoke of even before Paris. We, very clearly,

17:20 several months prior, said: watch out, terrorist cells may infiltrate

17:24 through this uncontrolled wave of migrants into Europe, and they can commit serious

17:29 crimes. At least four of the attackers in Paris were people who took advantage

17:33 of this Balkan route. The only way, Ladies and Gentlemen,

17:37 to minimize the risk of events

17:42 like those in Paris or in Germany is to prevent the formation of a unified

17:47 Islamic community in Slovakia. This would arise

17:51 through the fulfillment of mandatory quotas. And those who say that they want to respect the mandatory quotas

17:55 are talking about the creation of a unified Muslim community in Slovakia.

18:00 Yes, the mandatory quota may be two thousand people, but, should the so-called permanent

18:04 mandatory quotas be accepted, we are talking about up to 50,000 migrants

18:08 of a different religion, different traditions, different culture, who

18:13 would automatically form in Slovakia one unified

18:18 Muslim community, with all the risks which we today see in Paris, Germany

18:22 Belgium and other countries where such communities arose.

18:26 Ladies and Gentlemen, what had happened in Germany could, of course, happen in other countries

18:30 which have a diametrically different policy on migrants.

18:35 There are countries which had opened their arms – and today, they are closing their borders.

18:39 They speak of limiting the access of peoples into their countries. It is curious that

18:43 when you travel from Austria into Germany, you have to go through travel checks, border checks.

18:48 The same is true today for Denmark; it is also true for Sweden.

18:52 We do not want – and I will say it very clearly, directly

18:56 as I say it, that in Slovakia, there should happen something similar to what had happened in Germany

19:01 that someone who does not belong to the territory of Slovakia, who lives totally differently, does things totally differently,

19:05 should bother our women in public spaces. And I consider it

19:10 strange that someone should recommend to German women to avoid foreigners, that they

19:14 should walk in groups; there is even supposed to be some code of behaviour these women should keep to

19:19 in order for these situations not to occur. This is our home.

19:23 Are we to adjust? Or should the ones to adjust to the laws and the conditions in these lands be the people who

19:28 who have come here thanks to unregulated migration? For these reasons, permit me to

19:33 announce two major shifts in the policies of the government of the Slovak Republic.

19:37 The first fundamental shift concerns

19:41 the financial aid which we allocate to the migration crisis, which

19:45 we will very clearly direct primarily to the defense of our external borders.

19:50 So, if they will want money from us, we will say OK

19:55 we will give money, but we want this money to not end up in some funds,

19:59 food or otherwise. We want this money to end up in defense structures, and

20:04 that it will be used to defend the outer borders of Schengen, because

20:08 the only way to solve the problem in Europe is to stop the unregulated

20:12 migration streams. Ladies and Gentlemen, firstly, there now arrive

20:16 between 1,000 and 4,000 migrants per day into Europe, despite its being winter.

20:21 What will happen in the spring, when the UN speaks about three million people?

20:25 How will we stop these people? What will we do after another three million people enter

20:30 the lands of the European Union and more incidents such as we have seen

20:34 in recent times happen? We want to concentrate funds and use them to create

20:39 various security measures which will stop the various migration streams into Europe

20:43 because, if we continue to let people in, the situation will become completely unmanageable.

20:48 That is the first change: we want to refocus financial streams toward the defense

20:52 of the Schengen borders. The second fundamental change is, Ladies and Gentlemen,

20:56 we have always said that we reject being dictated to; we reject mandatory quotas.

21:00 We have always said that it is the sovereign right of the State to decide whom it will permit to enter its territory

21:05 or not, whom it will provide help to. It has been our

21:10 sovereign right and our good will when we have offered to the Austrians

21:14 our cooperation, and, for some time, to guarantee accommodations for Austrian seekers

21:18 of political asylum, with the understanding that, gradually, these people will leave.

21:23 We have always promoted the idea of free will, but not out of duty or some diktat.

21:27 Now comes a change. I want to note

21:31 not only that we refuse, and will continue to refuse, all attempts [to enforce] mandatory quotas.

21:36 Not only will we refuse all attempts for re-settling of permanent

21:40 quotas, on the basis of which up to 50,000 people could be resettled to Slovakia,

21:44 but we announce, that even on a good-will

21:49 basis, not even on a sovereign good-will basis,

21:53 will we make decision which could give rise to a potential

21:57 united Muslim community in Slovakia, with all the risks which we today see

22:02 in some European countries. This is the only way to prevent

22:06 the events which had happened in Paris or to eliminate the risks which are connected with

22:10 the settling of these peoples on the territory of the member states of the European Union.

22:14 That is why, neither on the basis of mandates, nor on the basis of good will, will we make any decisions which

22:19 would lead to the rise of a unified Muslim community, because this brings

22:23 very different cultural traditions, perhaps even conscious motivation