After election win, Fico also takes Facebook by storm

President Zuzana Čaputová may run the most followed Facebook page of all politicians in Slovakia, but it is the current Prime Minister and Smer party leader Robert Fico who ruled the most popular social media platform in Slovakia last year.

Fico became the prime minister last October, less than a month after winning the September 30 early elections.

Fico has the third highest number of Facebook followers after the president and Speaker Peter Pellegrini, a presidential hopeful and Hlas party leader. Čaputová has more than 480,000 followers, Fico followed by more than 280,000 people.

The number of Fico’s followers increased the most in 2023, however.

Facebook followers in 2023. (source: FMK UCM)

Almost 83,000 people decided to follow him, according to an analysis published by Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba (SNS/Život) was the second most successful politician in boosting his followers, by nearly 26,000 people.

Two far-right politicians, MEP Milan Uhrík (Republika) and Milan Mazurek (Republika) also managed to markedly boost their base of followers. Mazurek belongs among the group of politicians with the highest number of published Facebook posts, including videos. He published 784 posts and 360 videos last year.

Pellegrini came out on top in the category of posts with 914 on his page. He also shared the second highest number of videos (338) with followers.

Facebook posts by selected politicians in 2023. (source: FMK UCM)

Facebook videos, including livestreaming, by selected Slovak politicians in 2023. (source: FMK UCM)

But it was the videos on Fico’s Facebook page that recorded the most interactions: close to 5.2 million. The same goes for all posts, including videos, on the PM’s page. As the analysis shows, Fico’s page saw 1.6 million more interactions than in 2022.

Posts on the prime minister’s page were the most commented on and shared of all analysed profiles, too. People left 580,000 comments on the page and shared Fico’s content 680,000 times.

The analysis published by the university looked at the pages run by 12 politicians.

People's response to videos posted by Slovak politicians in 2023. (source: FMK UCM)

People's response to posts by Slovak politicians in 2023. (source: FMK UCM)

Although Fico dominated Facebook in 2023, the number of interactions on his page did not reach as many interactions as Smer MP Ľuboš Blaha’s page with 11 million interactions in 2021. Facebook later banned the MP from the platform.

Regardless, Fico’s popularity on Facebook may explain why he refuses to communicate with critical media such as the Sme daily. The daily has recently analysed Facebook profiles of 62 politicians. Among other things, its analysis has shown that the popularity of new politicians, including the charged Smer MP Tibor Gašpar and Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas), grew on Facebook in 2023.

According to Google, last year people in Slovakia were keen to follow politics, including information about Fico.