On the issue of illegal immigration Fico has said that “one of the first decisions of the government must be an order renewing border controls with Hungary,” warning that “it will not be a pretty picture,” given that force would be needed.
A party which has vowed not to “send a single round of ammunition to Ukraine” has won the largest share of votes in Slovakia’s elections. Almost 23% of the electorate voted for the Smer-SSD led by former Prime Minister, Robert Fico, who is now likely to form a coalition with other parties.
Fico campaigned strongly against illegal immigration during the run-up to the election on Saturday, and is seen as an ally to Hungary and Poland in the EU-bloc.
The Financial Times said that the result “could undermine western unity in helping Kyiv in its war against Russia”, and noted that after the results were evident, Mr Fico said that “people in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine”.
Early Slovak parliamentary election results:
2 real coalitions:
▪︎ Smer+Hlas+SNS (conservative, govt of national survival, anti-Ukraine, real solutions of Slovak problems, EU realist policy)
Prime Minister: Robert Fico
▪︎ PS+Olano+SaS+KDH (Progressive, LGBT, pro US/EU) pic.twitter.com/xUeZIxXxNC— Miroslav M. 🇸🇰🇸🇾 (@MiroslavMand1) October 1, 2023
Exit polls which showed the liberal Progressive Slovakia party winning the most votes late on Saturday were proved incorrect after the ballots were counted on Sunday. Progressive Slovakia actually won some 17% of the votes, with the pro-EU Hlas party capturing around 15% of voters.
Reuters wrote that analysts believe Fico is inspired by Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and the Slovak says the interests of his own people should be put before anything else.
“We see Viktor Orban as one of those European politicians who do not fear to openly defend the interests of Hungary and Hungarian people,” Fico told Reuters in emailed responses last month.
“He puts them in the first place. And that should be the role of an elected politician, to look after the interests of his voters and his country.”
The European Conservative described the results as “proof of people’s lack of trust in the government and its handling of the COVID pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis brought about partly by the war in Ukraine.”
Robert Fico—prime minister between 2006-10 and 2012-18—will probably have the best chance to build a coalition and bring his country more in line with the politics of Hungary and Poland. Fico has been extremely vocal in criticising both the EU and the United States for meddling in the domestic affairs of EU member states. His natural coalition ally would be Hlas, and he can also turn to the Slovak National Party with which he governed previously. However, pro-Ukraine and pro-LGBT-rights Progressive Slovakia may also sway Hlas to join them in a coalition.
“The migrants, predominantly young men from the Middle East and Afghanistan, have mostly come up via the so-called Balkan route, entering Hungary from Serbia despite a steel fence that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had built after the 2015 migration crisis that rocked Europe,” Reuters said.
Fico twice served as Slovakia’s left-wing populist prime minister from 2006 to 2010, and again from 2012 to 2018, but he resigned after journalist Jan Kuciak, who was investigating government corruption, was murdered in 2018 along with is fiancee Martina Kusnirova.