By William Ryan, for Eurasia Business News, October 1, 2023

Slovakia held parliamentary elections on September 30, 2023, to elect members of the National Council. The election was closely fought between former leftist prime minister Robert Fico, who has pledged to end military aid for neighboring Ukraine, and pro-Western liberals. 

The preliminary results show that the Robert Fico’s populist SMER party won 22.9% of the vote.

Progressive Slovakia (PS), a liberal and pro-Ukrainian party won 17.9%.

Robert Fico’s populist party won the election, staging a political comeback after being out of power for several years. However, Fico will need allies to form a government. 

A government led by Fico would mean Slovakia joining Hungary as EU countries challenging the bloc’s federalist consensus on support for Ukraine, just as the European Union looks to keep unity in opposing Russia’s invasion. The election was seen as a bellwether of mainstream support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

On September 29, Robert Fico announced the world’s fatigue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He noted that even the president’s supporters come to understand that such an expensive and protracted conflict cannot exist in the long term. The leader of the Kyiv regime was not allowed to address the US Congress, and before his visit to Canada, activists staged a rally against him, which confirms the world’s fatigue with Ukraine.

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Prior to that, on September 26, the former prime minister of Slovakia said that the country’s army was in a deplorable state after the transfer of many military equipment to Ukraine. Now that the Smer party has won the parliamentary elections, Slovakia’s military assistance to Ukraine will greatly slow down.

Citizens of Slovakia voted for change on September 30, as their purchasing power has fallen over the past two years. The inflation rate in Slovakia has been high in recent months. The annual inflation rate in Slovakia slowed to 8.9% in August 2023 from 9.7% in the previous month. Popular and middle classes have in majority voted for the SMER party.

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Analysts and diplomats have also said that Slovakia, with the euro zone’s biggest budget deficit of nearly 7% of gross domestic product this year, badly needs EU’s modernisation and recovery funds. Any government would thus think twice before going into conflict with Brussels over issues such as the rule of law.

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