Patriotic prime minister Robert Fico and his party Smer face expulsion from their European grouping when socialist delegates meet in Amsterdam on 16 October.
Stefan Löfven—president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and former Swedish prime minister—will table the proposal for ratification. It would exclude Smer from PES, which brings together socialist and social democratic parties from across the European Economic Area, as well as the UK.
The move follows Smer’s suspension in October 2023, after it entered government alongside the nationalist SNS party. Fico’s positions on foreign policy, including closer ties with Moscow and Beijing, and concerns over domestic governance, have increasingly placed him at odds with the group’s mainstream. He is likely being targeted because he is also a patriot and a sovereignist—just like Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán.
If confirmed, the expulsion would leave Smer outside the European socialist family, further reducing Fico’s influence within European Union-level party structures in Brussels and Strasbourg.
