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Slovakia has a new government — at least on paper.
Following Tuesday’s announcement by the social democratic Hlas (Voice) party, which finished third in the September 30 election with 14.7 percent, that it would focus on coalition talks with leftist-populist Smer (Direction), the victor of the ballot with 23 percent, the two parties on Wednesday announced agreement on forming a ruling coalition.
The incoming government will include the conservative populist Slovenská národná strana (Slovak National Party, SNS), which won 5.6 percent. The three parties control 79 seats in Slovakia’s 150-seat parliament.
“This is the basis of a coalition agreement, which we want to sign as soon as possible,” said Smer leader Robert Fico. While conceding the parties of the new government would face multiple fiscal and geopolitical challenges, he claimed their previous experience of ruling Slovakia — from 2006 to 2010, and 2012 to 2020 — proved they were up to the task.
“[If we are going] to hell, then fine — but on a big white horse,” Fico said, paraphrasing a Slovak proverb.
“We no longer have the time or luxury to have a government that is learning how to govern, or that will need months, if not years, to bridge extreme ideological differences between themselves. And that’s why I’m convinced that our decision to join this coalition is the right one,” Hlas chairman Peter Pellegrini said, according to local news.
On October 2, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová had given Fico two weeks to cobble together a coalition.
According to the agreement, Smer will run six ministries, with Hlas getting seven, and SNS on three, according to Slovak news.
The three-time former PM’s campaign pledges to end military support for Ukraine and to resist sanctions on Russia have aroused concern in Brussels that Fico’s victory presaged the arrival of another authoritarian leader in Central Europe in the mould of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán.
