In the most uncertain and hard-fought elections of the last 25 years, Slovakia has finally decided which side to take: from today the new president of the central-eastern republic is Peter Pellegrini, leader of the ruling Hlas-SD party led by the pro-Russian nationalist prime minister Robert Fico. Pellegrini beat the pro-European Ivan Korcok, Foreign Minister for the two-year period 2020-2022, in the second round, with 54.4% against 45.6% of the votes, and now it is easy to predict that the executive will have at his side, for the next five years, a president who will not oppose what observers define as an “orbanization” of Slovakia, but who will instead support Fico's next steps which will probably distance Bratislava even further from Europe and make it difficult to Union support for Ukraine.
Aware of the international concern over Fico's positions, the 48-year-old Pellegrini argued that the vote “does not concern the future direction of foreign policy” of Slovakia and assured: “I guarantee that we will continue to be a strong member of the EU” and of NATO. The presidency in Slovakia is largely ceremonial, but the head of state can always veto laws and appoint key officials, resulting in an obstacle – or support – to Fico's choices. According to critics of the government, Fico is following in Orban's footsteps on the judiciary, media and relations – very “relaxed” – with Putin. In office since last October, the government made up of Fico's Smer party, Pellegrini's Hlas and the small far-right formation Sns has stopped state military aid to Ukraine. Pellegrini was a minister in Fico's previous governments and even replaced him as head of government in 2018: despite having been his rival for a period, in a television debate during the election campaign he admitted: “I am running to save Robert Fico's government” .
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