Page 33 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2025

bne April 2025 Central Europe I 33
Mass protests against PM Fico’s pro-Russian turn continue across Slovakia. / bne IntelliNews
Mass protests against PM Fico’s pro-Russian turn continue across Slovakia
Russia being a more reliable neighbour if Ukraine was defeated still resonated across the political spectrum and wider public. Last week, Smer's radical legisla- tor Luboš Blaha also met with Russia's spy chief Sergei Naryshkin, fueling more speculations about the extent of Russian influence over the Smer party.
Kaliňák made the comments ahead of the EU's March 6 security summit, where Slovakia backed further EU military support of Ukraine despite Fico's earlier threats of blocking the summit conclusions.
Slovakia shares a border with Ukraine at the very east of the country, and the westernmost part of Ukraine was part of interwar Czechoslovakia during
the years of the then First Republic, 1918-1938. After Smer formed the sitting cabinet with centre-left Hlas and far-right SNS in the autumn of 2023, it reoriented the country’s foreign policy from being one of the staunchest backers of Ukraine in its fight against Russian 2022 invasion to a Kremlin- pleasing stance.
As bne IntelliNews covered, Slovakia’s president Peter Pellegrini, who paved the way for Fico’s fourth cabinet in
2023 while chairman of Hlas, described Kaliňák as “incapable of analysing the situation in the world” and that “it is not necessary to take it [his views] seriously.”
Organisers of the protests also called on three Hlas legislators rebelling against the ruling coalition, Ján Ferenčák, Samuel Migal‘ and Radomír Šalitroš to “turn on the right side of history.”
bne IntelliNews
Mass protests in Slovakia against the left-right cabinet of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico continued with rallies under the slogan “Slovakia is Europe” held in more than 40 cities and towns across the country.
Some 9-11,000 rallied in the capital Bratislava alone on March 7, state STVR broadcaster and liberal online news outlet Aktuality.sk reported, while demonstrations in other EU cities also took place. Košice, the second largest Slovak city, held a rally of more than 15,000.
“The whole government suffers from some Russian propaganda disease. They spread Russian propaganda further as though [they] forgot about the sovereignty of Slovakia and [they] are trying to fight for Russia,” Marián Kulich, one of the organisers from the Mier Ukrajine [Peace for Ukraine] NGO stated.
He added that “we believe that this public pressure influences the way politicians make decisions.”
In January, Fico claimed a “coup” involving Mier Ukrajine, opposition, and Georgian pro-Ukrainian units is allegedly unfolding in Slovakia and he managed to discourage the opposition from holding a no-confidence motion against himself after moving the
“We believe that this public pressure influences the way politicians make decisions”
no-confidence session behind closed doors on grounds of sharing classified information about the “coup.”
The protest also took place as words of Erik Kaliňák, member of the European Parliament from Fico’s Smer party, about
Fico has been pushing to keep his ruling coalition alive, taking advantage of his dominant position in the government, and has rearranged the coalition composition, taking one ministerial portfolio from Hlas and SNS each, which he is now using as a bargaining
www.intellinews.com