Slovakia Stops Military Aid to Ukraine, as Populist Robert Fico Negotiates a Majority Coalition to Govern
Eastern European Slovakia has been a major supporter of Ukraine, donating arms – including its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets – and accepting refugees.
But the latest electoral cycle saw the Ukraine fatigue rise and three-time Prime Minister Robert Fico make an electoral comeback.
Widely described in the Western media as a ‘pro-Putin populist’, Fico has repeatedly stated his opposition to continuing military aid to Ukraine.
And while Fico’s Smer party is still to form the coalition to govern, the interruption of the aid has already taken effect.
Associated Press reported:
“Slovakia’s president has refused a plan by her country’s caretaker government to send further military aid to Ukraine, saying it doesn’t have the authority and parties that oppose such support are in talks to form a government following last week’s election.”
President Zuzana Caputova said in a statement Thursday that the current ‘caretaker’ government of technocrats has only limited powers, having lost a mandatory confidence vote in Parliament on June 15, a month after it was sworn in.
The ‘caretaker’ Cabinet was created to lead the country to Saturday’s early election.
“Caputova on Monday asked the leader of the winning party in the election to try to form a coalition government. Populist former prime minister Robert Fico and his leftist Smer, or Direction, party captured 22.9% of the vote on Saturday. It will have 42 seats in the 150-seat Parliament.
Fico has vowed to withdraw Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, and his victory could further strain the fragile unity in the European Union and NATO.”
Fico and the Smer party have two weeks to find coalition partners to rule with a parliamentary majority.
President Caputova, a huge supporter of Ukraine, has not changed her view on military assistance for Kyiv.
“But the statement said that ‘approving a military aid package by the current outgoing government would create a risky precedent for the change of power after any future elections’.”
The president is ready to support military assistance ‘proposed by any government with full powers’.
Euronews reported:
“If he succeeds in forming a coalition government, Fico will become prime minister for the fourth time, campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American message.
‘Slovakia and people in Slovakia have more serious problems than Ukraine. That’s all I can say at this moment’, he said following his victory last weekend.”
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