Slovakia’s former Prime Minister Robert Fico vowed to keep his country within the European Union and NATO, were he to be reelected, after one of his potential coalition allies stirred up a debate by saying there should be a referendum on Slovakia’s NATO membership.
Milan Uhrík, the leader of the eurosceptic Russophile party Republika, confirmed over the weekend that his party wants to organise a referendum on quitting NATO in the next four years, reports Slovakian news agency TASR. Republika, which split from the overtly neo-Nazi People’s Party Our Slovakia in 2021, is currently backed by 9% of the voters, putting it in fourth place, according to the latest opinion poll published on Sunday, August 20th.
Milan Uhrík has previously said that Slovakia should maintain a neutral position regarding the war in Ukraine and not give military assistance to Ukraine as the current centre-right-liberal government has done. Regarding the EU, Uhrík—who is a Member of the European Parliament—rejects the EU’s policies on migration, climate protection, and LGBT issues, and advocates for a union based primarily on economic cooperation.
Republika, and another nationalist force, the Slovak National Party (SNS)—currently polling at 5%—have both been talked about as potential coalition partners in a Robert Fico-led government.
Elections are coming up on September 30th and the former prime minister’s party, social-democratic-populist Smer—a member of the Party of European Socialists—is predicted to win with 20% of the votes. Fico has also been calling for peace talks to end the Russo-Ukrainian war and said Ukraine’s entry to NATO—supported by many NATO member countries, but currently not on the agenda—would not be the guarantor of peace, but the guarantor of World War III.
By opposing mass migration to Europe and denouncing the meddling of EU institutions and U.S. billionaire George Soros in Slovakia’s internal affairs, Fico has found allies on the conservative political scene, such as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary. The opposition leader, however, stressed on Tuesday, August 22nd that Slovakia has to maintain its foreign policy orientation and must remain a member of NATO and the EU—a rebuke to Milan Uhrík’s calls for a referendum. Responding to a question, Fico said he wouldn’t rule out building a coalition with any party that manages to gain seats in parliament.
However, another one of his possible coalition partners, former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, leader of social-democratic Hlas—a party that split from Smer three years ago—said that it will not enter into a coalition with the far-right Republika. “We will never enter into any electoral coalition with this political party partly due to [Uhrík’s] statements and opinions on where Slovakia should be internationally anchored”, Pellegrini said, adding that his party will never cooperate with parties that question NATO and EU membership. Hlas is currently polling at 14%.
Anti-NATO sentiments resonate with a large portion of the Slovak population, as a May survey conducted by non-governmental organisation Globsec found that only 58% of Slovakians would vote for their country to stay in the military alliance, while 33% would vote to leave. The latter percentage rate is the highest ratio among the eight Central European countries surveyed.
As Slovak daily SME points out, there may be an option for Smer to build a coalition that would not include Republika. The Smer-Hlas coalition scenario partly relies on the Slovak National Party, which failed to get any seats in 2020, making it into parliament this time. Milan Uhrík, however, believes that although Hlas and Smer “say they cannot imagine cooperation with us, that will change after the election.”
In case things do not go Smer’s way, the government could be led by liberal runner-up Progressive Slovakia—supported by 15% of voters—for which forming a coalition would mean bringing together a mismatched grouping of conservative, libertarian, socially democratic, and populist parties, writes Euractiv. According to an analysis by Hungarian-language Slovakian news website Ma7, the centre-right Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)—polling at 6%—and national-conservative Sme Rodina—a member of the current government, polling at 5%—could both be persuaded to join either of the two coalitions.
It remains to be seen whether the latest scandal surrounding the country’s security services will linger and influence the outcome of the elections. Fico called the charges brought against security chiefs a “police coup,” a move that could harm his party before the elections.
