A week and a half after the parliamentary elections, a new government coalition has been formed in Slovakia. The party leaders of the left-wing populist Smer (Direction), Hlas (Voice) and the right-wing populist Slovak National Party (SNS) signed a corresponding agreement in Bratislava on Wednesday. It stipulates that former Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer will be prime minister and his predecessor Peter Pellegrini’s Hlas party will be head of parliament.
This solution avoids the potentially controversial situation of two former prime ministers sitting together at the cabinet table. Pellegrini had ruled this out in advance. Until the memorandum was signed, it remained unclear which of the two party leaders would become prime minister. This will probably be Smer boss Fico, while Pellegrini will probably become chairman of parliament.
Smer will therefore provide the head of government and six ministers, Hlas seven ministers and SNS three. In the memorandum, the three future coalition partners also committed to Slovakia’s membership of the EU and NATO. This formulation probably goes back to Hla’s boss Pellegrini, who emphasized the day before that he wanted to “guarantee” Slovakia’s membership of the EU and NATO.
Controversial attitude towards Russia
Left-wing populist Fico governed Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He is controversial because of his pro-Russian stance. During the election campaign he announced that he wanted to stop Slovak arms deliveries to Ukraine. He is also critical of the EU sanctions against Russia.
Leading EU politicians had expressed fears in the run-up to the elections that a change of power in Bratislava could bring a “new dynamic” in terms of support for Ukraine. Despite right-wing conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s mutual talks, the EU has so far taken a consistent stance towards the aggressor.
The coalition discussions are moving at a rapid pace
Fico was given the task of forming a government by President Zuzana Čaputová last week. On Tuesday, the board of Pellegrinis Hlas unanimously decided to start coalition talks with Smer and SNS. Fico had already governed with the SNS in the past, which earned him a rebuke from the EU’s social democrats. This time too, there is a suspension of Fico’s membership in the European party family.
Pellegrini is a long-time companion of Fico. When he resigned as head of government due to the mass protests following the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018, Pellegrini succeeded him in this office, but remained head of Smer. After losing the 2020 parliamentary elections, Pellegrini founded his own party, Hlas, which at times held a wide lead in the polls over Fico’s Smer. It came third in the elections, behind Smer and the pro-European liberal party Progresivné Slovensko (PS).
Source: Krone
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