The Slovak president on Wednesday (October 25) appointed a new coalition government led by Robert Fico, who has already held the post of prime minister twice, and who notably allied with the far-right SNS party to obtain the required majority in parliament. According to analysts, such a government could radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy and turn away from Ukraine. “You will see a sovereign Slovak foreign policy,” said Robert Fico, whose political party, Smer-SD, came first in September’s parliamentary elections by promising to end military aid to Kiev.
After his election victory, the new prime minister claimed that “Slovakia and its people have bigger problems [to solve] than Ukraine” and called for peace talks because “further killings will not help person “. To form a government, Robert Fico allied himself with the far-right SNS party and the left-wing HLAS party. The coalition will have a majority of 79 deputies, out of the 150 in parliament.
The new government includes some members of his previous cabinet, which fell amid a wave of street protests following the 2018 double murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. The SNS, Robert Fico’s coalition partner, shares his anti-refugee rhetoric and populist tendencies, with its president Andrej Danko notably declaring in July that the territories occupied by Russia were not “historically Ukrainian”. On Wednesday, a close ally of Mr. Fico, pro-Russian MP Juraj Blanar, was named foreign minister.