Fico goes to Brussels, and hears from the Kremlin

Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Fico becomes prime minister, again, and travels to Brussels. The new interior minister sends a clear signal immediately upon taking office. Slovakia abstains on a UN resolution calling for a truce in Gaza, with the minister saying it lacked any mention of terrorism or hostages.

If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.

Fico makes his entrance in Brussels as PM

Prime Minister Robert Fico represented Slovakia at an EU summit in Brussels last Thursday. Ten years ago, this would have made for a one-sentence summary at the bottom of a newspaper page. But in late October 2023, it is one of the main news items of the week.

Fico travelled to Brussels just one day after President Zuzana Čaputová appointed him and his cabinet. He had been intent, once he and his two partners had concluded their coalition talks in mid October, on getting appointed as prime minister in time to be able to represent Slovakia at the summit, which was scheduled to deal with migration and Ukraine.

Slovak observers were watching his steps in Brussels closely for indications about whether he would live up to the fiery anti-Brussels rhetoric that he and his colleagues espoused during three years in opposition and, especially, during the recent election campaign; or whether he would hew to the double-faced approach – saying one thing to his Slovak audience while doing the opposite at EU summits – that characterised his previous premierships. “As long as they say the wrong things and do the right things, I think we are fine," Estonian premier Kaja Kallas, known for her robustly pro-Ukrainian stance, said about Fico and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as quoted by EU Observer.

What Fico said to his Slovak audience