SMER-SSD party leader Robert Fico speaks during a press conference after the country's early parliamentary elections, in Bratislava, Slovakia, October 1, 2023. REUTERS/Radovan StoklasaSlovakia’s pro-Russian and anti-liberal election winner Robert Fico was poised on Sunday to begin coalition talks to form a government likely to join Hungary in opposing the European Union’s military aid for Ukraine.
“We are prepared to help with the reconstruction of the state but you know our opinion on arming Ukraine,” he added at a news conference. Fico said Slovakia has bigger problems than the Ukraine issue, including energy prices and living costs, but his party would do everything possible to start peace talks.
Fico’s record of pragmatism may mean he tones down his rhetoric going forward, analysts and diplomats say, especially in a coalition with HLAS. The migrants, predominantly young men from the Middle East and Afghanistan, mostly come via the so-called Balkan route, entering Hungary from Serbia despite a steel fence that Orban had built after the 2015 refugee crisis that rocked Europe.
Born to a working-class family, Fico graduated with a law degree in 1986 and joined the then ruling Communist party.