The new Investment Minister Samuel Migaľ arrives at his first cabinet meeting on March 21, 2025. (source: TASR, Jaroslav Novák)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Fico’s government reshuffles have restored his thin parliamentary majority. The coalition now plans to come down on NGOs even harder than originally proposed. After promising “not a single bullet” for Ukraine, the Slovak premier now pledges to send “not a single cent”.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
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March 18 was a joyful day for the coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Fico. Two former MPs of Hlas, a junior coalition party, signed a new deal with none other than the PM himself, which effectively allowed him to proclaim that his months-long coalition crisis was at an end.
On the outside, it appears to be a win-win deal for all those involved (with the possible exception of hapless Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Andrej Danko – but that’s a separate story and not one that needs to be highlighted this week).
Samuel Migaľ went from being a rank-and-file MP to being appointed a government minister. He takes over the Investment Ministry – which among other things manages the EU funds that flow to Slovakia – from prominent Hlas politician Richard Raši, who is in turn expected, thanks to the coalition’s restored majority, to become speaker of parliament. This latter position, which is nominally one of Slovakia’s top three constitutional roles, was vacated by Peter Pellegrini after he was elected president a year ago, and has remained vacant ever since.
Fico has 79 coalition votes in parliament, which is not a rock-solid position but – worryingly enough – allows him to get back to work.
But a closer look at the situation reveals a darker side to last week’s events.
