Robert Fico’s government is facing its most serious political threat since he returned to office in October 2023 — but an associate of the Slovak prime minister says she’s not remotely concerned.
Slovakia’s opposition joined forces Wednesday to propose a confidence vote in Fico’s coalition government, which consists of the leftist-populist ruling party Smer (Direction), the social-democratic Hlas (Voice) and hard-right Slovak National Party (SNS).
“No, I am not worried. They don’t have enough votes,” Katarína Roth Neveďalová, a Smer MEP, told POLITICO in an interview.
In order to topple the government and trigger a snap election, the opposition would need at least 76 votes out of 150, but they currently only have 71 seats. That doesn’t leave Fico with much margin for error, however, as he and his ministers have taken criticism from inside the coalition after a series of controversial moves and internal disputes.
Fico himself signaled that a snap election might be an option if his coalition partners fail to resolve their differences in the country’s parliament.
“I don’t think [the] coalition is in crisis. Some lawmakers have different opinions and we’re discussing that with them, but I don’t think the current Slovak government is facing any threat,” Roth Neveďalová said.
She was referring to four coalition MPs who were critical of Fico’s December trip to Moscow, where he attempted to secure cheap gas for Slovakia after Ukraine ended a transit deal with Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.
Michal Šimečka, leader of the strongest opposition party Progressive Slovakia, called the trip “a disgrace.”
But Roth Neveďalová said the results of Fico’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin had “exceeded expectations” and that “it was a right decision to go,” even though it didn’t ultimately result in Russian gas flowing to Slovakia.
Though Fico has echoed Kremlin talking points on Ukraine and the EU’s response to Russia’s war, Roth Neveďalová disputed the opposition claim that the current government is turning Slovakia eastward, which she dismissed as “nonsense.”
“Neither Smer nor the government ever said we should leave the EU or NATO … we have an open foreign policy in all directions,” she said, adding that Slovakia has the right to set a sovereign foreign policy. Since Fico’s election triumph, however, he has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s closer allies in the EU, and has vowed he will “never” agree to support Ukraine’s NATO membership.
Criticism hasn’t been limited to Fico’s Moscow outreach. He also came under fire from the Slovak press and the opposition recently for spending time in a luxury hotel in Vietnam, where a single night’s stay costs more than €5,000, at a time when Slovak citizens face health-care and cost-of-living crises.
Fico denied the media reports and said he had only used the hotel for an official meeting, which he backed up with confirmation from the hotel.
“It’s an absolute nonsense [to say] that he stayed in a hotel for €6,000. He was on vacation, and I think the prime minister has [the] right to rest,” she said.
The vote of confidence will take place next Tuesday at 9 a.m.
The post Crisis? What crisis? Fico ally brushes off threat to bring down Slovak government appeared first on Politico.
