Robert Fico signs deal to return as Slovakia’s prime minister

Robert Fico is set to return as Slovakia’s prime minister after agreeing on Wednesday to form a coalition government with two smaller parties, less than two weeks after he won a snap election. 

Fico’s comeback has raised alarm bells in the EU and Nato after the populist leader opposed sanctions on Russia and campaigned on a pledge to end support to Ukraine, positions that could further undermine western unity on helping Kyiv defend itself against Russian aggression.

His return to power was enabled by Peter Pellegrini, whose centre-left Hlas party came third in the election. Pellegrini had replaced Fico as prime minister in 2018 but then fell out with his former mentor and left his Smer grouping to form Hlas, briefly raising expectations in the liberal camp that he could thwart a Fico administration.

The coalition memorandum confirms Fico’s stunning comeback five years after he was forced to resign amid mass street protests sparked by the killing of a journalist and his fiancée; Jan Kuciak had been investigating Smer for political corruption. 

After a year of chaos in Slovak politics that led to snap elections in September, Pellegrini said that Wednesday’s deal would offer a return to stability under experienced leadership. “We no longer have the time or luxury to have a government that is learning how to govern,” he said. 

Instead of lengthy coalition talks, “Fico outmanoeuvred everybody by moving fast. He showed that he is the most experienced — and he got it done,” said Slovak analyst Milan Nič of the German Council on Foreign Relations. 

Fico has not repeated his pledge to oppose aid for Ukraine since winning the vote and focused in his news conference on Wednesday on the need to consolidate public finances so that “we will have resources to restart growth”. 

“Yes, he said crazy things about Ukraine in the campaign, but I think we will see a domestically focused government, with Fico much weaker at home than Viktor Orbán in Hungary and without the same level of international ambition,” said Nič.

Smer and Hlas will team up with the Slovak National party (SNS), which shares their anti-immigration message. The three parties together will have 79 of 150 seats in the new parliament.

Fico, 59, has shaped Slovak politics for two decades and is set to start his fourth term as prime minister. The agreement will see Smer take the key portfolios of finance, foreign affairs, defence and justice, but Hlas used its leverage as kingmaker to get the interior and economic portfolios as well as the ministry responsible for EU regional funds, which are essential to sustain poorer parts of Slovakia.

Pellegrini will be speaker of parliament, but he could also prepare a run for the presidency next year.

To help Slovakia’s finances as he prepares the eurozone country’s budget for 2024, Fico is expected to introduce a special levy on banks, probably modelled on that unveiled last summer in Italy by prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

While the new coalition partners must still agree on specific appointments, one of the frontrunners to return as foreign minister is Miroslav Lajčák, currently the EU’s special representative for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.