The populist politician “wants to dominate the domestic scene and in order to achieve it, at least in the short term, he probably won’t do anything really drastic on the international scene as he wants to avoid unnecessary attention from the EU institutions.” And if he criticises Russia it is usually a very mild and general critique.”īut, the Slovak journalist said: “I believe that it is entirely possible that after the elections Fico might act quite pragmatically regarding the EU and NATO.” Robert Fico’s campaign rhetoric does suggest that if he is able to form a government, he would move towards the pro-Russia camp, Matisak said, noting that the Smer (Direction) leader “says that if he governs, Slovakia will not provide any military aid to Ukraine.
“There is a real concern that after the vote Slovakia could become some sort of Trojan horse of Russia in the EU and NATO,” said Andrej Matisak, a journalist at Slovak daily Pravda. 30 Sept 2023 21.40 CEST Will Slovakia turn pro-Kremlin?
