PM Robert Fico (source: Sme - Jozef Jakubco)
This is how the beginning of the end looks. Prime Minister Robert Fico is sick, tired and in damage control mode — granting interviews left and right to media he shunned for years. The scandal plagued number two, Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák is a drag on his party’s reputation and no longer a viable successor.
Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák is campaigning to be UN Secretary General. Even Smer’s greatest strategic asset, unity, is splintered as MEPs openly criticise the party’s direction — or lack thereof.
Organisationally, things are a mess as Smer has been forced to delay its party congress because the proposed programme is unpalatable for a 21st century European country. The guy who drafted that programme, former parliament speaker Pavol Paška, was forced from office two years ago over a corruption scandal — and the party leadership would have been well advised to keep him retired.
