How Robert Fico turned Slovakia into one of Russia’s only allies
Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister who was shot on Wednesday, has presided over a shift from pro-Western values to growing sympathies with Russia since his election victory last September.
The Left-wing populist has steered his Smer (Direction-Social Democracy) party strongly against military support for Ukraine, vowing in a pre-election interview with The Telegraph last year that he would cut arms supplies to Kyiv altogether.
“It is better to negotiate peace for 10 years and stop military operations than to let the Ukrainians and Russians kill each other for another 10 years without results,” he said.
Traditionally a pro-Western party, Smer under Mr Fico pivoted during the last campaign towards being softer on Vladimir Putin, with the 59-year-old calling for an end to sanctions on Russia as they were driving up the cost of living for ordinary Slovaks.
He has capitalised on mixed views about the benefits of Nato in Slovakia, where only 51 per cent would vote to remain in the alliance if there were a referendum, according to recent polls. As many as 60 per cent of Slovaks aged 25 to 64 also want to stop arming Ukraine, according to another study.
Mr Fico’s election victory had stoked fears of an about-turn from Bratislava on support for Ukraine, as his predecessor provided Kyiv with Howitzers, took in tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and was the first leader to send Mig-29 fighter jets. However, he did publicly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has also stated his opposition to the annexation of Crimea.
Born in northwest Slovakia in 1964, Mr Fico was first elected as an MP in 1992 for the Party of the Democratic Left, the successor of the Communist party.
After switching to Smer, he won the 2006 general election, and served again as leader from 2012-2018, at which point he resigned amid a political crisis triggered by the murder of Ján Kuciak, an investigative journalist.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, he has grown much closer to Viktor Orban, the increasingly Putin-friendly leader of Hungary.
A recent profile in Politico suggested that Mr Fico “hated” Ukraine because he was forced in 2009 to wait more than three hours in Kyiv for a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart about natural gas supplies.
He was then embarrassed to discover that journalists had been invited to what he thought would be a private meeting, leaving him “red with anger”, according to one insider.
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After being snubbed in Kyiv, Mr Fico flew to Moscow where Putin rolled out the red carpet at a greeting ceremony in St George’s Hall. From that point on, he “began to take an openly anti-Ukrainian position”, said Alexander Duleba, a Slovak foreign policy analyst.
Mr Fico also publicly clashed in March 2024 with the British ambassador to Slovakia, who had posted a video message taking the Slovak leader to task for criticising EU member states’ support for Ukraine.
Prior to Mr Fico’s election, one analyst said Slovakia had been “one of the most fierce supporters of Ukraine within Nato”. Now its position under Mr Fico looks far more uncertain.
What we know about Slovak PM assassination attempt
Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot several times by a gunman after a government meeting.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot multiple times on Wednesday. Here is what we know about the incident:
What happened?
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, a 59-year-old four-time premier who came back to power after his Smer-SD party won a general election last year, chaired a government meeting in the central town of Handlova. Shots were fired after the meeting.
"There was an assassination attempt on Robert Fico. He was shot multiple times and is currently in a life-threatening condition," said a statement on Fico's official Facebook page.
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Daniel Vrazda, a journalist with Dennik N newspaper who was covering the event, said he heard four shots and saw Fico on the ground and then being carried away.
Video footage obtained by AFPTV showed two guards carrying Fico by his arms while other guards opened the doors to a black Mercedes limousine that sped away.
Security personnel apprehended a man in jeans who was lying on the ground in handcuffs, the video showed.
Fico was later transported by a helicopter to hospital in Banska Bystrica. Slovak public television RTVS showed images of a stretcher surrounded by security guards being wheeled into a hospital.
What was the official response?
Slovak President Zuzana Caputova expressed shock at the attack on her political opponent and spoke out against what she called a "brutal and reckless attack."
Fico's close ally, Peter Pellegrini, who is to succeed Caputova in June, has also condemned the "assassination attempt".
"I am horrified by where the hatred towards another political opinion can lead," Pellegrini said on X (formerly Twitter).
The parliament session in Bratislava was suspended following the attack and security measures have been bolstered.
The Slovak opposition called off a rally planned for Wednesday against government plans to reform the public broadcaster, which have been slammed by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) media watchdog.
Reactions from leaders
World leaders quickly condemned the attack.
"Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with PM Fico, his family," said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form, or sphere," said Zelensky.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the shooting a "heinous crime".
"I know Robert Fico to be a courageous and strong-spirited man. I very much hope that these qualities will help him to withstand this difficult situation," Putin said in a statement.
Who is Robert Fico, the populist Slovak prime minister wounded in a shooting?
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times after a political event Wednesday afternoon, an episode of violence that punctuated his decades-long career in politics.
His deputy prime minister Tomas Taraba later told the BBC he believed Fico would survive the attack, saying “he’s not in a life threatening situation at this moment.”
Fico, 59, was born in 1964 in what was then Czechoslovakia. A member of the Communist Party before the dissolution of communism, he took a law degree in 1986 and was first elected to Slovakia's parliament in 1992 as a member of the Party of the Democratic Left.
He served for several years in the 1990s as a governmental agent representing the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission of Human Rights. In 1999, he became chairman of the Smer (Direction) party, of which he has been a pivotal figure ever since.
He and Smer have most often been described as left-populist, though he has also been compared to right-wing politicians like the nationalist prime minister of neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orbán.
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Fico returned to power in Slovakia last year, having previously served twice as prime minister, from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018. His third term made him the longest-serving head of government in the history of Slovakia, a European Union and NATO member.
After five years in opposition, Fico’s party won parliamentary elections last year on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform. He vowed to bring an end to Slovakia providing Ukraine with military support as it battled Russia's full-scale invasion, and has argued that NATO and the United States provoked Moscow into war.
After his election victory, the new government immediately halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Thousands repeatedly took to the streets across Slovakia to rally against Fico’s pro-Russian and other policies, including plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor and to take control of public media.
Fico's return to power caused concern among his critics that he and his party — which had long been tainted by scandal — would lead Slovakia away from its pro-Western course. He vowed to pursue a “sovereign” foreign policy, promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organizations, and campaigned against LGBTQ+ rights.
He earned a reputation for his tirades against journalists, and faced criminal charges in 2022 for allegedly creating a criminal group and misuse of power. In 2018, he and his government stepped down amid controversy after Slovakian investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was murdered along with his fiancée. Kuciak had been reporting on tax-related crimes implicating high-level Slovak politicians.
Putin calls attack on Slovakian PM Fico a 'despicable crime'
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico "a despicable crime," in a message from the Russian leader to his Slovakian counterpart Zuzana Čaputová.
Political opponents repeatedly accuse Fico of taking "Russia-friendly" positions amid Putin's war against Ukraine.
Relations between Slovakia, an EU and NATO member state, and its neighbour Ukraine cooled noticeably when the left-wing nationalist Fico won the parliamentary elections in autumn and returned to power. During the election campaign, Fico had announced that he no longer wanted to supply Ukraine with weapons.
"I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-willed person. I very much hope that these qualities will help him to get through this difficult situation," Putin continued, according to the statement published on the Kremlin website.
Fico was shot and critically injured after a Cabinet meeting in the town of Handlová.
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