Ľuboš Blaha (born 7 December 1979) is a Slovak

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

post-Marxist Post-Marxism is a perspective in Critical theory, critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its association with economism, historical determinism, Antihumanism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism, whilst remai ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. He is a member of the

National Council of the Slovak Republic The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, abbreviated to ''NR SR'') is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameralism, unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation ...

, a presidium member of the

left-wing populist Left-wing populism, also called social populism, is a Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideology that combines left-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric often includes elements of anti-elitism, opposition to the E ...

party Direction – Slovak Social Democracy and

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who has served as the prime minister of Slovakia since 2023. He previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He founded the left-wing political party D ...

's foreign-policy aide. Blaha has served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

since 2024, having previously served as an MP of the

National Council of Slovakia The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, abbreviated to ''NR SR'') is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation with seats dis ...

from 2012 to 2024. Blaha's has described his political positions as left-wing populist,

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

and

left-wing nationalist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing poli ...

. He describes himself as an "

anti-globalist The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

neo-Marxist Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, ps ...

" in the tradition of Wallerstein's world-systems theory, Robinson's concept of global capitalism and Hardt and Negri's theory of Empire. Blaha was member of Slovakian metal band Ethereal Pandemonium where he was active as a keyboardist.

Political career

He graduated from elementary school and gymnasium in Bratislava. He studied political science at the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. He continued his studies at the Comenius University in Bratislava (majoring in philosophy) From 2004 to 2006, Blaha worked for the Communist Party of Slovakia as the Head of its International Department. Despite calling him to give up on his tenure, Blaha works as a

at the Institute of Political Sciences at the

Slovak Academy of Sciences The Slovak Academy of Sciences (, or SAV) is the main scientific and research institution in Slovakia fostering basic and strategic basic research. It was founded in 1942, closed after World War II, and then reestablished in 1953. Its primary ...

. Blaha has been a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic since 2012. In the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

he was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

with 187,020 preferential votes, the second most after Ľudovít Ódor. In 2025, he visited Russia and claimed that while the West is "broken," Russia is strong and that "the West is losing, and Russia is winning." He also met with the russian

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

of the Foreign Intelligence Service,

Sergey Naryshkin Sergey Yevgenyevich Naryshkin ( rus, Серге́й Евге́ньевич Нары́шкин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej jɪˈvɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈrɨʂkʲɪn; born 27 October 1954) is a Russian politician who has served as the Director of SVR, di ...

Political views

Political and Economic Ideologies

He used to support modern

Western Marxism Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an i ...

, radical democratic movements, and culturally liberal positions. He argues that in the era of neoliberal

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, the Left must be more focused on socio-economic (

redistribution of wealth Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, con ...

cooperative ownership A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

economic democracy Economic democracy (sometimes called a democratic economy) is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift ownership and decision-making power from corporate shareholders and corporate managers (such as a board of directors) to a larger ...

) rather than cultural issues and that the

social conservatism Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on Tradition#In political and religious discourse, traditional social structures over Cultural pluralism, social pluralism. Social conservatives ...

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

in Slovakia must be accommodated. Particularly, Blaha has praised the high

progressive tax A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The term ''progressive'' refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the ...

es and workers' project funds. In Slovakia, he promotes the cooperative business model such as the Spanish-Basque

Mondragon Corporation The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and cooperative federation, federation of worker cooperatives based in the Euskal Herria, Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956 by Father José María Arizmendiarrie ...

Foreign Policy

Ľuboš Blaha is a foreign policy realist. His opinions are inspired by the school of international

political realism Realism, in international relations theory, is a theoretical framework that views world politics as an enduring competition among self-interested states vying for power and positioning within an anarchic global system devoid of a centralized ...

(e.g. the ideas of

Kenneth Waltz Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field ...

and

John Mearsheimer John Joseph Mearsheimer (; born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar. He is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer is best known for dev ...

) and

neo-Marxism Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psy ...

(especially

William I. Robinson William I. Robinson (born March 28, 1959) is an American professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work focuses on political economy, globalization, Latin America and historical materialism. He is a member of the ...

Immanuel Wallerstein Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development in sociology of world-systems approach."Wallerstein, Immanuel (1930– )." ...

and

Antonio Negri Antonio Negri (; ; 1 August 1933 – 16 December 2023) was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of ''Empire (Hardt and Negri book), Empire'' with Michae ...

). He strongly criticizes

U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

. He vehemently condemned not only the

war in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. , style="background:#F88" , Coalition of Gulf War, Coalition victory * Kuwait, State of Kuwait resumes self-governance over all Kuwaiti sovereign territory * Esta ...

, but also the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

. He also criticized the Western involvement in

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. He is a critic of the foreign policy of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in relation to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. He advocates for the rights of Armenians in relation to the

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

and criticizes Turkish foreign policy. He endorses many of the ideas of

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

and

Slavoj Zizek Slavoj may refer to: * Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher * Slavoj Černý (1937–2020), Czech former cyclist *Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosoph ...

Russia

He is one of the greatest defenders of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in Slovakia since the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

broke out. He is an apologist for

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

's regime, but he perceives the crisis in Ukraine as a geopolitical clash between the West and Russia, and he rejects what he considers one-sided criticism of Russia and the growing

Russophobia Anti-Russian sentiment or Russophobia is the dislike or fear of Russia, Russian people, or Russian culture. The opposite of Russophobia is Russophilia. Historically, Russophobia has included state-sponsored and grassroots mistreatment and di ...

in Europe. He has openly criticized the Sanctions against Russia and he describes Russia as a friendly nation that liberated

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

from fascism in 1945.

European Union

Blaha is very critical of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. He considers the EU a neoliberal and elitist project, but he does not see a better alternative for

than the EU. He supports the fight for a different, better, and more social Europe that will be more left-wing and democratic. In the past, he advocated the project of European basic income, he consistently promotes social economy and

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s, and strongly advocates for a "Social Union". He is a sharp critic of the TTIP agreement in

. He was the first Slovak Member of Parliament to visit the so-called "TTIP Reading Room". He describes the agreement as synonymous with neo-liberalism and the colonization of the European social model by American transnational corporations, and as the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic for European Affairs he actively supports its intense scrutiny. In the 2016 election campaign, he expressed disenchantment with the EU and stressed the four issues which he sees as the main failures of Europe:

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Russia, TTIP and the migration crisis. There were other main themes of his election campaign in addition to the criticism of the

– resistance to capitalism and exploitation; resistance to

Western imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power ( diplomatic power and cultural imperialism). Imperialism foc ...

and propaganda; fight for

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

. Blaha espouses socialism,

anti-capitalism Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism with an alternati ...

, alter-globalism and moderate

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

. Thus, he is marked as a "Russian agent" by critics.

Greece

During the Greek crisis in 2015, he openly supported

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

and defended the arguments of

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

and

Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis Georgiou "Yanis" Varoufakis (; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a left-wing pan-European political party he co-founde ...

. After the breaking-up of

and the agreement between

and its creditors, he further criticizes the EU for the imposition of a "neo-liberal diktat". He remains a supporter of

Migration

Blaha opposed mandatory quota proposals during migration crisis. His arguments were based on human rights (not forcing

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s to be settled in countries in which they do not want to live), on tactical thinking (Central European societies are not ready for shock solutions, they need time and sensitive approach), and on political realism (mandatory quotas in these societies, he claimed, would only favor fascists and the political

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

). He has criticized "bleeding-heart liberals" for their supposed contempt for the people who are afraid of uncontrolled

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

, calling them "racists" and "xenophobes". However, he strongly refuses and condemns

islamophobia Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

and advocates for the solidarity of

with the EU, be it material, financial or personal. He is the author of the Declaration of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, in which all Slovak parliamentary groups declared their opposition to the quotas and emphasized other forms of solidarity, systemic solutions and the fight against right-wing extremists taking advantage of the migration crisis.

Criticism and controversies

The

International Press Institute International Press Institute (IPI) is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. The institution was founded by 34 editors from 15 countries at Columbia Universit ...

, along with the

, condemned his abusive series of Facebook posts targeting two female Slovak journalists in 2019.

and Academy of the Police Force condemned his posts on social media which go against the ethical code of the institutions. Security company ESET sued Blaha to protect its reputation. Court ordered Blaha to erase false posts about ESET. He called a special prosecutor a "young snot" (while falsely claiming the prosecutor was only 25 years old). In July 2020, Blaha was investigated by the Police Corps under the law that prohibits denying or approving genocide or crimes against humanity. Blaha had posted on Facebook about "lies about murderous communists and innocent victims", claiming that the Communist regime had eliminated gangsters and helped ordinary people. The investigation and the charges were dropped in September 2020. He has been repeatedly criticized for spreading hoaxes, conspiracy theories and disinformation through Facebook posts in which he attacks President

Zuzana Čaputová Zuzana Čaputová (; Strapáková; born 21 June 1973) is a Slovak politician, lawyer and environmental activist who served as the fifth president of Slovakia from 2019 to 2024. Čaputová is the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the ...

, government politicians, several media outlets, the third sector, the Slovak Republic's foreign policy, the vaccination against COVID-19, and spreads pro-Russian disinformation narratives. In February 2022, the Slovak Academy of Sciences called Blaha to give up on his tenure immediately. However, Blaha refused to resign by saying the Academy could burn him to death, imprison and persecute him, but he will not give up his freedom of speech. Blaha was banned from

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

for COVID-19 misinformation on 14 June 2022.

Books

* Blaha, Ľuboš. ''Social Justice and Identity.'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2006. 164 p. . * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''Back to Marx? (A Welfare State, Economic Democracy and Theories of Justice).'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2009. 526 p. . * Blaha, Ľuboš.''The Matrix of Capitalism – An Approaching Revolution?'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2011. 176 p. . * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''The Haunts of Capitalism, or, The Beginning of a New Era?: Interviews with Critical Intellectuals'' Bratislava: VSSS, 2012. 384 p. . (with Dinka, Pavol. Žižek, Slavoj. Albert, Michael. Bělohradský, Václav. Hauser, Michael. Hrubec, Marek. Keller Jan. Krejčí, Oskar. Robinson, William I. Schweickart, David. Švihlíková, Ilona. Michelko, Roman) * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''The European Social Model – What's Next?'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2014. 480 p. . * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''The Metastases of Global Capitalism: Dialogues with Leftist Intellectuals'' Bratislava: Matica slovenská, 2017. 136 p. . (with Daubner, Peter. Chmelár, Eduard, Keller Jan. Hrubec, Marek. Peffer, Rodney. Harris, Jerry) * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''The Antiglobalist'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2020. 342 p. . * Vidovan, Peter (Blaha, Ľuboš). ''Lenin and the 21st century'' Bratislava: VEDA, 2021. 254 p. . * Blaha, Ľuboš. ''Che'' Bratislava: R Free Press, 2024. 367 p. .

References

External links

Ľuboš Blaha's blogĽuboš Blaha's profile at the Slovak Academy of Sciences"Fico ist der am weitesten links stehende Premier Europas" (Interview with Luboš Blaha)
in: junge Welt, 12 June 2010
English Version here.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaha, Lubos 1979 births Living people Politicians from Bratislava Direction – Social Democracy politicians Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2012–2016 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2016–2020 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2020–2023 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2023–2027 COVID-19 conspiracy theorists Matej Bel University alumni Comenius University alumni MEPs for Slovakia 2024–2029