The populist party which plans to end military aid to Ukraine and which criticizes the EU and NATO came first in the legislative elections in Slovakia, according to results published this Sunday. The Smer-SD party, led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico obtained 23% of the vote in Saturday’s vote ahead of the centrist Progressive Slovakia party which received 18% of the vote. “Slovakia and its people have bigger problems than (relations with) Ukraine,” Robert Fico told reporters on Sunday. He added that Ukraine was “a huge tragedy for everyone” and called for peace talks because “further killings will not help anyone.”
Robert Fico also said he expected President Zuzana Caputova, his political rival, to task him with forming the government. Zuzana Caputova, a former MP from Progressive Slovakia, said earlier this week that “some people think peace can be achieved by stopping all aid to Ukraine, and that’s where I disagree.” Analysts say a Fico government could radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy to resemble that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Robert Fico, 59, vowed that Slovakia would not send “a single bullet of ammunition” to Ukraine and called for better relations with Russia.
Looking for allies
However, Robert Fico said that Slovakia’s foreign policy orientation would not change, because “we are naturally members of the EU.” “This obviously does not mean that I cannot criticize things that I do not like within the EU,” he clarified. However, many Slovaks are less concerned about foreign policy, hoping that the new government will focus on the economy and argue less than the previous one.
Smer won 42 seats out of 150 in Parliament and therefore needs coalition partners to obtain a majority. Hlas-SD, which emerged in 2020 from a split from Smer, is a potential partner with 27 seats. Its president, Peter Pellegrini, served as prime minister in 2018 after the resignation of Robert Fico, amid large protests following the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova. Jan Kuciak discovered links between the Italian mafia and the government of Robert Fico in his last article, published posthumously.
Populist campaign
The two parties could team up with the Slovak Nationalist Party (SNS), which won 10 seats, for a parliamentary majority of 79 seats. Robert Fico has already governed twice with the SNS, which like him is opposed to military aid to Ukraine. Slovakia is among the main European donors to Ukraine, given the size of its economy.
Slovakia became an independent country in 1993, following a peaceful separation from the Czech Republic, when Czechoslovakia got rid of the totalitarian communist regime in 1989. Robert Fico’s campaign was deeply marked by a rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community and migrants, which has caused concern among non-governmental organizations.