Robert Fico’s is now set to be a Prime Minister for the third time. Fico’s party won the Slovakian parliamentary elections on Sunday, October 1, with almost every one of the votes cast in the Central European nation having been tabulated.
It is now often predicted that the 59-year-old, a two-time former prime minister of Slovakia, would take office for a third time. Fico is believed to have launched a political comeback after running on pro-Russian platforms and vowing to end his country’s involvement in the continuing crisis in Ukraine.
The populist SMER party of Robert Fico and the centrist Progressive Sloviansk (PS) party were expected to compete closely in the election. SMER-SSD led with 23% and PS dropped with 17% after 6,000 voting places had been calculated in 99.98% of the elections.
Slovakia’s assistance to help Ukraine’s Forces
Since the invasion commenced, Slovak military stocks have been depleted and switched from surface-to-air missiles to MiG-29 fighter planes to assist Ukrainian forces.
Slovakia was the first nation to give Ukraine air defense during the invasion. Fico has formally declared that if elected, Slovakia would not provide any more ammunition to Kyiv and has requested that the government halt sending weapons to the Ukrainian capital.
Additionally, it received a significant amount of refugees from the nation in crisis. The nation would no longer provide assistance to Ukraine, nevertheless.
It is essential to keep in mind that Fico has already held the position of prime minister of Slovakia twice. One of his stints lasted from 2006 to 2010, and from 2012 to 2018 he once more presided over the state. In addition to opposing providing assistance to Ukraine, Fico has been open about his opinions on attacks by the Muslim community.
Robert Fico’s statement about the Muslim community
In 2016, nearly 90 women registered complaints after being sexually assaulted and robbed by young, intoxicated men. Additionally, two women claimed to have been raped. A total of 500 police complaints were filed, and 40% of these reports said that the males who committed the sexual assaults on the women were migrants, primarily from North Africa and the Arab world
Following this, Fico issued a statement declaring that no Muslim immigrant would be permitted to enter the nation. The EU mandating its members to accept refugees with profoundly different beliefs and lifestyles as well as a different attitude towards women has never been something the government has supported. It’s hard for Muslim refugees to integrate into society, he had claimed.
Fico addressed the Muslims in the country in 2015, saying that they were intruding on the nation’s religion and building a number of mosques.
He continued by saying that every Muslim living in his country was under surveillance. Under the slogan “We’re protecting Slovakia,” Fico had claimed throughout his campaign that year that “thousands of terrorists and Islamic State fighters are entering Europe with migrants.”
French MEP says EU must “wake up”
Nathalie Loiseau, a French Renew MEP, stated on television that following the legislative elections in Slovakia, Europe has to wake up.
According to Loiseau, the head of the 2019 campaign for the French pro-Macron Renaissance delegation, she stated that there is a great risk for this nation, and there is a risk for other countries as well to buy into pro-Russian myths.
She said, “Those who claim that racist, populist, [and] pro-Russian parties can’t win higher office would do well to look at Bratislava. The EU and Foreign Affairs ministries have not provided any comments on the results so far.
