The first words of former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico after learning of his electoral victory have been from peace of mind for European partners: “We are not going to change the orientation of foreign policy,” said the leader of the pseudo-social democrats of the Smer-SD after elections that reveal poor reliability of exit pollsthat they gave him as a loser, and that Fico is capable of resurrect politically from the dead.
The message to the European partners must have been due to legal imperative, since until the opening of the electoral colleges his campaign questioned the values and foundations of the EU and opened a crack in the unity and cohesion that Brussels has forged around Ukraine. “Not one more bullet to support Ukraine” in a war that he blamed on “Ukrainian Nazis,” the candidate said in a campaign with a pro-Russian reek.
The narrative of this 59-year-old ex-communist lawyer, lover of bodybuilding and cars, resonated with an electorate tired of the war in Ukraine dominating the national political agenda and in need, according to the sociologist Roman Pudmaríkof strong leaders who contribute stability. “Those who previously voted for Vladimír Meiar today vote for Robert Fico,” he maintains.
Fico has declared that if he reaches the Government he will do everything possible to start peace negotiations in Ukraine and reiterated that it will not send weapons to Ukraine.
In that he was sincere. Behind its purely electoral proclamation, there is the fact that the outgoing government has already given Kiev everything it could give, including its MIG-29 fighter fleet and the S-300 air defense system. The arsenals are empty, but in Fico’s mouth: “The Slovaks now have more important problems than Ukraine,” and “I don’t like that the EU doesn’t have its own opinion on some things and that it is controlled by the United States.”