The leader of the Slovak populists Robert Fico, winner of the legislative elections in Slovakia, announced on Wednesday an agreement with the far right and a left-wing party for the creation of a future government coalition.
According to analysts, such a new government could radically change Slovakia’s foreign policy and turn away from Ukraine.
“We have agreed to form a government together” with the far right and a left-wing party, Mr. Fico told the press. “This is the basis of the coalition agreement, which we want to conclude as soon as possible,” he added.
“Specific names and ministries will be included in the coalition agreement. I will present the list of ministers to the president shortly,” he added.
The Smer-SD of Prime Minister-designate Robert Fico obtained 23% of the votes and beat the centrist party Progressive Slovakia (PS, 18%), during the legislative election on September 30.
The left-wing Hlas-SD party, formed around Smer dissidents, obtained 27 seats. It is led by Peter Pellegrini, who became prime minister in 2018 when Mr Fico was forced to resign following nationwide protests after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.
The two parties will team up with the nationalist SNS party which obtained 10 seats, to benefit from a majority of 79 seats.
During the election campaign, Mr. Fico, 59, vowed that Slovakia would no longer send “a single bullet of ammunition” to Ukraine and called for better relations with Russia.
The day after the election, he estimated that his country of 5.4 million inhabitants had “more important problems” than aid to Ukraine, while until now Slovakia, a member of the EU and of NATO, has been a significant European donor to Ukraine, relative to its GDP.
“We believe that Ukraine is a huge tragedy for everyone. If the Smer-SD is responsible for forming a cabinet […]we will do our best to hold peace talks as soon as possible,” Fico said at the time.