Slovakia’s former Prime Minister Robert Fico reached a deal on Wednesday, October 11th, with social democratic and nationalist parties to form a new government, which is expected to scale back the country’s support for Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Fico’s left-wing sovereigntist-nationalist Smer party won parliamentary elections on September 30th with pledges to halt military aid to Ukraine and criticism of sanctions on Russia. The planned government is expected to be in place ahead of an EU summit on October 26-27 where Ukraine will be high on the agenda.
A Fico-led government would move Slovakia ideologically closer to Hungary on the issue of Ukraine. Fico backs humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Ukraine and wants the EU to force peace talks—a line similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Slovakia would also move closer to both Hungary and Poland in defying EU meddling in domestic affairs.
Fico has also pledged to protect his country against illegal migration and gender ideology. The shift in the region against the West’s globalist-liberal-green agenda may be reinforced if Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party wins parliamentary elections this weekend.
Also on Wednesday, Smer, social democratic Hlas—a party that split from Smer three years ago—and the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) signed a memorandum on forming a coalition with pledges to keep the country’s basic foreign policy stance as a member of NATO and the EU, “while fully respecting sovereignty and national interests.”
The new government will have a relatively comfortable majority in the country’s 150-seat parliament, with Smer holding 42 seats, Hlas 27 and SNS 10. As part of the coalition deal, Smer will appoint the prime minister and six other ministers; Hlas will get to name the parliament speaker and seven cabinet ministers; and the Slovak National Party will get to name three ministers, reports AP.
“The most important task is to set fiscal consolidation of public finances in a way that we do not have to cancel or change anything on the achieved social standard, and at the same time we will have resources to restart growth,” Fico said on Wednesday.
