NATO and United Europe member Slovakia is to get a new government that is expected to implement many divergent policies in sensitive areas like illegal migration and the support for the Ukrainian war effort.
Slovak former prime minister Robert Fico and his party SMER signed a coalition deal to form a new government.
Fico is a three-time prime minister that won the election with pledges to halt military aid to Ukraine, while taking a hard line on rising illegal migration and a surge in prices.
Reuters reported:
“He has backed peace talks for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion – a line similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban but rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies, who say this would only encourage Russian aggression.
Fico’s leftist, populist SMER-SSD (Direction-Slovak Social Democracy) struck a deal last week with the centre-left HLAS (Voice) and nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) to form a coalition that will have 79 out of 150 seats in parliament.”
The parties agreed to a breakdown of cabinet positions, giving SMER the defense, finance, foreign and justice ministries.
Slovakia is on course for the highest deficit in the euro zone this year, more than twice the bloc’s ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product.
“Fico said he wanted to prevent budget tightening from hurting social standards and to allow space for investments, signaling slower pace of fiscal consolidation than what the outgoing caretaker government has recommended. “Slovakia needs to support economic growth,” he told a news conference.”
Fico listed his priority as boosting living standards, with a foreign policy focused on protecting national interests.
He also said the era of NGOs running the country is over.
Politico reported:
“’This is the basis of a coalition agreement, which we want to sign as soon as possible’, said Smer leader Robert Fico. While conceding the parties of the new government would face multiple fiscal and geopolitical challenges, he claimed their previous experience of ruling Slovakia — from 2006 to 2010, and 2012 to 2020 — proved they were up to the task.
‘[If we are going] to hell, then fine — but on a big white horse’, Fico said, paraphrasing a Slovak proverb.
‘We no longer have the time or luxury to have a government that is learning how to govern, or that will need months, if not years, to bridge extreme ideological differences between themselves. And that’s why I’m convinced that our decision to join this coalition is the right one’, Hlas chairman Peter Pellegrini said, according to local news.”
By