Slovakia, exit polls overturned: pro-Russian Fico wins
Even though we read the opposite almost everywhere in today’s newspapers, Robert Fico won the elections in Slovakia. The Smer SD, the populist party led by Fico, has now practically, if not yet officially, won the parliamentary elections in Slovakia. The formation led by the former prime minister, who characterized his electoral campaign with pro-Russian and anti-EU positions, can boast 23.42% of the votes when 98.13% of the ballots were counted. Progressive Slovakia, centrist and liberal party with a clear pro-European matrix, given as favorite by polls and exit polls, he is stuck at 16.75%.
Fico recently stated that Slovakia will not send “a single bullet” to Ukraine if his party comes to power and has called for peace talks between the two warring parties. And if in the past he hailed Slovakia’s adoption of the euro as a “significant historic decision”, during the election campaign he targeted the EU, NATO and Kiev in an attempt to woo far-left voters and far right.
“The war in Ukraine originated in 2014, when Ukrainian fascists began killing civilian victims of Russian nationality,” he said in a recent video. “It is in our vital interests to have good relations with all countries in the world, including the Russian Federation,” he added, labeling his pro-Western opponents “warmongers.” He also stated that he will not allow the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin under the international arrest warrant if he travels to Slovakia. A lawyer by profession, Fico began his political career in the Communist Party shortly before the 1989 Velvet Revolution dissolved the former Czechoslovakia. He was Slovakia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 1994 to 2000. In 1999, after not being considered for a ministerial position, he abandoned the Democratic Party of the Left (SDL), heir politician of the Communist Party, to found his own political formation, the Smer-Social Democrat (Smer-SD).
The gamble paid off in 2006, when Smer-SD achieved an electoral success that catapulted Fico to the prime minister’s seat two years after Slovakia’s entry into the European Union. Without thinking twice, Fico formed a coalition with the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), with strong anti-refugee rhetoric and strong populist inclinations. Fico cleverly exploited the 2008 global financial crisis to boost its popularity, refusing to impose austerity measures. Slovakia’s entry into the eurozone in 2009 capped his first four-year stint as prime minister, but the 2010 elections sent him back into opposition, having failed to form a coalition despite his victory.
A new electoral success came in 2012, after the fall of a centre-right coalition brought down by accusations of corruption. In 2014, however, he was defeated in the presidential race by Andrej Kiska, a philanthropist and political novice.
When the refugee crisis engulfed Europe in 2015, Fico took a tough stance on migrants, refusing to “give rise to a distinct Muslim community in Slovakia” and criticizing the EU’s quota program to redistribute refugees. On this platform, Smer won the 2016 elections, but Fico’s premiership ended two years later following the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend which unleashed a wave of anti-government sentiment across the country. Slovakia.
The 2020 election saw him lose but retain his seat in Parliament. Born on September 15, 1964, Fico is married to Svetlana Ficova, with whom he has a son, Michal, although Slovak media claims the couple have separated. His favorite motto describes his political history well: “Patience always brings red roses.”
#Slovakia #elections #proRussian #Fico #wins #proUkraine #axis #breaking