Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico offered fulsome praise of Donald Trump to an approving audience in Washington on Friday, and applauded the U.S. president’s repudiation of America’s commitments to Ukraine and its historic allies in NATO and the European Union.
“Your president is doing Europe a great service,” Fico told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a 15-minute speech. “The energy and determination with which your President Donald Trump has entered into the peace process in Ukraine is admirable … He is bringing truth and, we all hope, peace back to Europe,” he said.
The Slovak leader and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have become Europe’s enfants terribles in the past few years, echoing Moscow’s talking points and pushing against continued military aid to Ukraine.
“My good friend … Viktor Orbán recently complained, with a smile on his face of course, that he has been trying to hold a mirror up to the European Union for years,” Fico said. “And then Donald Trump comes along and manages to do it in a matter of days.”
Trump has recently called Ukraine’s democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator” and has said Kyiv should call new elections as soon as possible, even though Ukraine is at war and millions of its citizens have fled abroad or are fighting invading Russian troops.
‘Serious security reasons’
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this month that Ukraine won’t be joining NATO and that Kyiv’s goal of reclaiming all its territory is “unrealistic.”
“I think they have the cards a little bit,” Trump told the BBC on Feb. 20 on Air Force One, referring to Moscow, “because they’ve taken a lot of territory.”
Fico on Friday enthusiastically backed those talking points.
“No one is disputing that Russia’s use of military force in Ukraine was a violation of international law,” he said. “However, Russia had serious security reasons for doing so because it has long been misled on the issue of NATO enlargement.”
The Slovak prime minister added that “the absolute majority of the EU member states with the exception of Slovakia and Hungary have endorsed the idea that the war in Ukraine should be used to weaken Russia politically and economically.”
In Slovakia, the Fico government’s pro-Moscow and anti-EU policies have fueled a wave of protests that have spread to more than 50 cities and smaller towns, mostly in support of the country’s continued Western orientation. On Feb. 21, the crowds had another reason to return to the streets: the seventh anniversary of the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.
‘Our guys’ system
“The main architect of the ‘our guys’ system [a metaphor for corruption] is back in power,” said Ján’s father, Jozef Kuciak, to a crowd of about 10,000 in the capital Bratislava, referring to Fico. “It’s up to us to decide what is more important, freedom or passivity.”
Hours later in Washington, Fico blamed the European Union for “pushing themselves to the U.S.-Russian peace negotiating table even though for three years now they have and do openly support the war in Ukraine.”
Fico added that “President Zelenskyy actually needs this war. When there is war there cannot be democratic elections … When there is a war it is difficult to investigate where a huge part of the funding given to Ukraine ended up.”
In closing, Fico praised Trump’s MAGA movement, saying it represents “a vision that resonates urgently not only in the United States but across the world.”
“I appreciate President Donald Trump’s pragmatic approach and his clear focus on American national interests,” the Slovak leader said. “This is exactly what each and every one of us should be doing.”
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