Former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whom President Zuzana Caputova hinted that she will mandate on Monday to form the government, said at a press conference on Sunday that Slovakia has “more important problems” than aid and relations with Ukraine, but promised that if he becomes prime minister again, he will not change the direction of foreign policy, although he will adopt a critical position on some European issues, AFP and Reuters reports.
Robert Fico, president of Smer-SDPhoto: Darko Bandic / AFP / Profimedia
“We consider that Ukraine is a huge tragedy for all of us. If Smer will be tasked with forming the government (…), we will do everything we can to organize peace negotiations as quickly as possible,” Fico said, adding that his position towards Ukraine remains unchanged, i.e. he will oppose the continuation of military aid to Kiev, but not humanitarian aid.
The centre-right governments that ruled Slovakia after Russia went to war against Ukraine have unreservedly backed Kiev with arms and ammunition, supplying the Ukrainian military with the entire Slovak fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets, the only S-300 anti-aircraft system that seems to- Slovakia had it, 16 Zuzanna-2 howitzers, 30 BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, plus other weapons and substantial amounts of ammunition.
However, Robert Fico assured that “the orientation of Slovakia’s foreign policy will not change, but this does not mean that we will not be critical in some European matters”. He thus referred in particular to the issue of migration, given that the Slovak territory is increasingly being transited by illegal migrants trying to reach Western Europe, and the European Commission has included mandatory refugee quotas in the draft European pact on migration. For the time being, Robert Fico has promised that if he becomes prime minister, he will restore controls at the border with Hungary.
But until then, difficult negotiations await him to form a majority, after the right-wing president Zuzana Caputova, with whom he is in open conflict, will appoint him to form the government. Fico described Caputova as a “puppet” of the USA and a supporter of the interests of George Soros, an accusation following which the president sued him for defamation.
In the meantime, the Slovak presidency announced that Zuzana Caputova is going to give the party that won the elections the mandate to form the government on Monday. The press release of the presidency with this announcement does not specify the name of this party. “In the spirit of our constitutional tradition, tomorrow I will entrust the formation of the government to the winner of the elections,” the statement said.
Robert Fico’s party, Smer-SD, a conservative-leaning social-democratic party, won around 23% of the vote in Saturday’s election, while President Zuzana Caputova’s party, the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, obtained a little over 17% of the votes, with Hlas (Vocea) in third place, a moderate left-wing party split from Smer-SD and led by former prime minister Peter Pellegrini, who will have a decisive role in forming the majority.
Pellegrini, who succeeded Fico as prime minister, made it clear that he would lean towards an alliance with him, although he keeps his options open. In a coalition led by Fico, the nationalist formation the Slovak National Party (SNS), which obtained almost 6% of the votes, as well as other small conservative-oriented parties that entered the new parliament, a very fragmented legislature, could also enter. Therefore, Robert Fico stated that he does not expect the negotiations for the formation of the future government to last less than two weeks
