{"id":3725,"date":"2025-03-12T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T12:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/slovakias-protests-prove-the-fight-for-europe-isnt-over\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T12:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T12:01:17","slug":"slovakias-protests-prove-the-fight-for-europe-isnt-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/slovakias-protests-prove-the-fight-for-europe-isnt-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovakia\u2019s protests prove the fight for Europe isn\u2019t over"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Slovakia\u2019s<\/p>\n

On March 7, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Slovakia for the third time this year to protest the pro-Russian policies of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico\u2019s government. They voiced concerns that Slovakia is drifting away from the European Union and its transatlantic allies.<\/p>\n

Their fears are well-founded. Since autumn 2023, a coalition of nationalist, EU-skeptic, and pro-Russian parties has held power in Bratislava. While Fico\u2019s left-wing Smer party pushes pro-Russian rhetoric, the Slovak National Party (SNS) promotes a \u201cpan-Slavic brotherhood\u201d with Moscow. The result is the same: under Fico, Slovakia is moving in a direction similar to Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary.<\/p>\n

Fico\u2019s government has demonstrated a clear alignment with Moscow. In September 2024, he falsely claimed that Nazi troops were fighting in Ukraine. He was also the first prime minister of an EU member state to grant an interview<\/a> to the Russian state television channel Rossiya 1.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, \u013dubo\u0161 Blaha, a European Parliament member of Fico\u2019s Smer, traveled to Moscow<\/a> to \u201capologize to the Russians for EU sanctions,\u201d provocatively stating, \u201cfascism and war come from the West, while freedom and peace come from the East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fico met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December 2024, and he had already accepted Putin\u2019s invitation to travel to Moscow<\/a> in May 2025. In January 2025, a delegation from SNS also visited Moscow<\/a>, where party chairman Andrej Danko called Putin \u201ca very reasonable and pragmatic leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerned about the government\u2019s pro-Russian stance, the liberal opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) proposed enshrining Slovakia\u2019s EU membership in the constitution. The response from Fico\u2019s camp was both surprising and alarming: Tibor Ga\u0161par, a former police chief indicted for criminal activity and now a Smer politician, suggested that Slovakia should consider leaving the EU if its rules were to change. Even President Peter Pellegrini, from the coalition partner Hlas, distanced himself from Ga\u0161par\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

While a Slovak exit from the EU may still seem unlikely, many citizens are deeply unsettled by the government\u2019s direction. This frustration has fueled mass protests<\/a>, where demonstrators wave Ukrainian flags and rally under the slogan \u201cPeace for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fico, however, has responded with conspiracy theories. When his government faced a no-confidence vote<\/a> in January 2025 \u2014 after losing several MPs and potentially its parliamentary majority \u2014 he called for a closed session, claiming Slovakia\u2019s intelligence service (led by the son of Tibor Ga\u0161par) had warned him of an attempted coup.<\/p>\n

According to Fico, NGOs active in Ukraine and Georgia were plotting to overthrow him \u2014 a claim with no evidence, but one that echoed the rhetoric of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> in Hungary. Around the same time, Orb\u00e1n himself visited Bratislava, further strengthening ties between the two leaders. In the end, Fico managed to block the no-confidence vote, despite his government\u2019s fragile majority.<\/p>\n

\"Slovakia\u2019s<\/picture>
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Oct. 1, 2023. (Vladimir Simicek\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fico\u2019s Orb\u00e1n-like approach extends beyond foreign policy into domestic affairs. Ironically, Fico \u2014 who pursued anti-Hungarian minority policies in his first term (2006\u20132010) \u2014 has now become a close ally of Orb\u00e1n. Even Slovakia\u2019s Hungarian minority party aligns with Fico\u2019s anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian stance.<\/p>\n

Like Orb\u00e1n, Fico has worked to weaken democratic checks and balances \u2014 amending criminal law in his interests, restructuring public media to silence critical journalists, and allowing SNS\u2019s nationalist culture minister to wage a political war against artists (theater and museum directors have been dismissed and replaced with loyalists).<\/p>\n

Despite these troubling developments, Slovakia under Fico remains freer and more pluralistic than Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary. The key difference is stability: Orb\u00e1n has ruled since 2010 with a strong parliamentary majority, whereas Fico\u2019s coalition is fragile and divided. Some MPs from his smaller coalition partners, SNS and Hlas, have already left the government, though they have not yet voted against him.<\/p>\n

Fico\u2019s pro-Russian stance has so far been more of a rhetorical tool for domestic politics. Unlike Orb\u00e1n, he ultimately did not block the EU\u2019s decision on Ukraine in early March, as he hopes the European Union will secure gas supplies for Slovakia.<\/p>\n

Fico\u2019s pragmatism can also be explained by the fact that a fully pro-Russian foreign policy and a boycott strategy at the European level would not even be entirely supported within his own coalition \u2014 particularly by the Hlas party of President Peter Pellegrini. At the same time, the issue of Ukraine \u2014 again in contrast to Hungary \u2014 is a key mobilising force for the Slovak opposition. While the Hungarian opposition avoids open and direct confrontation with Orb\u00e1n on this matter out of opportunism, tens of thousands of people take to the streets in Slovakia to demonstrate in support of Ukraine and against Fico\u2019s pro-Russian policies.<\/p>\n

Political instability and mounting public resistance continue to pressure Fico. On the streets of Slovak cities, the Ukrainian flag has become a symbol of pro-European commitment for many. They are not \u201cforeign agents,\u201d as Fico claims, but decent citizens of Slovakia who want to avoid the Orb\u00e1nization of their country.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n

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US set to abandon partners again as history repeats in Ukraine<\/div>\n
Paris in January 1973. Doha in February 2000. Saudi Arabia in February 2025 \u2014 all peacemaking summits with the same aroma and feel. But there are key differences before we assume the stage is simply being set for another American episode of \u201ccut and run.\u201d After years of promising never to<\/div>\n
\"Slovakia\u2019sThe Kyiv Independent<\/span>Eerik Kross<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"Slovakia\u2019s<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

– https:\/\/kyivindependent.com\/tag\/ukraine\/rss\/<\/p>\n

This article appeared on the websitekyivindependent.com
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\nOriginal Content<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 7, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Slovakia for the third time this year to protest the pro-Russian policies of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico\u2019s government. They voiced concerns that Slovakia is drifting away from the European Union and its transatlantic allies. Their fears are well-founded. Since autumn 2023, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152,1],"tags":[705,562,64,1757,507,1050,4517,4516,187],"class_list":["post-3725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kyivindependent","category-news","tag-europe","tag-fight","tag-for","tag-isnt","tag-over","tag-protests","tag-prove","tag-slovakias","tag-the"],"yoast_head":"\nSlovakia\u2019s protests prove the fight for Europe isn\u2019t over - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/slovakias-protests-prove-the-fight-for-europe-isnt-over\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Slovakia\u2019s protests prove the fight for Europe isn\u2019t over - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On March 7, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Slovakia for the third time this year to protest the pro-Russian policies of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico\u2019s government. 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