{"id":416983,"date":"2025-01-23T14:27:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T13:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/23\/slovacchia-fico-opposizioni-colpo-stato\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T15:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T14:43:26","slug":"slovak-pm-fico-accuses-opposition-of-staging-a-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/23\/slovak-pm-fico-accuses-opposition-of-staging-a-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovak PM Fico accuses opposition of staging a coup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels–The political tension continues to rise in Bratislava<\/strong>, where we are now at the open clash between the pro-Russian prime minister Robert Fico<\/strong> and the parliamentary opposition forces<\/strong>. The head-to-head has led to the cancellation of a motion of no-confidence<\/strong> in the premier, who in turn has accused — citing evidence that is far from convincing — pro-EU protesters of planning a coup d’\u00e9tat<\/strong>\u00a0along the lines\u00a0of Ukraine’s Euromaidan.<\/p>\n

Vote on no-confidence rises<\/h3>\n

For weeks now, the political climate in Slovakia has been getting increasingly heavy<\/strong>\u00a0due to the head-on clash between the head of the executive,\u00a0Robert Fico,<\/strong> and opposition forces. The latter are finding unprecedented\u00a0unity<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0challenging the populist prime minister<\/a>, mainly because of the\u00a0increasingly close ties\u00a0to Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s Russia and because of the government\u00a0methods\u00a0branded as authoritarian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tensions rose further on Tuesday (Jan. 21) when Parliament met<\/a> in a special session to discuss a motion of no confidence promoted by\u00a0opposition forces<\/strong>. However, it\u00a0never took place\u00a0<\/strong>because Fico, who was present at the debate, asked to move to a secret closed-door procedure,<\/strong> thus provoking the protest of the minorities, who left the Chamber<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>
Photo: Attila Kisbenedek\/Afp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an excuse to suspend\u00a0the public session, the premier said he had received a secret service report<\/strong> that urgently needed to be presented to the assembly<\/strong>. However, according to the opposition forces, it was a farce: “The report was just a bunch of platitudes compiled from emails<\/strong>,” said<\/a> the number two of the Progressive Slovakian Liberal Party (PS),\u00a0Tomas Valasek<\/strong>, adding that the government resorted to “a procedural trick to muzzle\u00a0the opposition<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

PS leader and opposition leader\u00a0Michal \u0160ime\u010dka<\/strong> accused Fico of wanting to get Slovakia out of the EU<\/strong> and rebuked him for his controversial visit to the Kremlin<\/strong> a few days before Christmas<\/a>. “We are dangerously close to totalitarian practices<\/strong>,” warned his fellow party member Martin Dub\u00e9ci<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Local media later published the\u00a0content of the dispatch<\/strong>. The incriminated emails had circulated among organizations promoting a day of national mobilization<\/strong> called for tomorrow (Jan. 24), with demonstrations planned in Bratislava and some 20 other cities. As confirmed by one of the NGOs involved, the emails\u00a0contained a set of programmatic guidelines<\/strong> for nonviolent protests to get the government to retrace its steps and reaffirm Slovakia’s pro-EU and pro-Ukraine<\/strong> course, which came to a stop when Fico regained power in the fall of 2023.<\/p>\n

Charges of an attempted coup<\/h3>\n

During the visit of his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> on Tuesday, the Slovak premier lashed out at parliamentary opposition forces<\/strong> and civil society organizations<\/strong> that support anti-government protests (which have been going on for several months now), which he said are responsible for preparing a “coup d’\u00e9tat”<\/strong> to overthrow democracy in the country.<\/p>\n

\n

Had my first meeting this year with Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/p>\n

The world has become a different place since yesterday. The only place where they fail to notice this is Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u274c Instead of stopping the war, they want to continue financing it.
\n\u26a1\ufe0fInstead of bringing\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/FVJH7UdYug<\/a><\/p>\n

– Viktor Orb\u00e1n (@PM_ViktorOrban) January 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I can’t name names, and I can’t discuss the circumstances, but I can tell you in all seriousness that the Slovak opposition is planning a Maidan<\/strong>,” Fico told the press, adding that the opposition “is planning to occupy government buildings<\/strong>” and promised in response “significant preventive measures<\/strong>” by the executive.<\/p>\n

Civilian intelligence services said they had obtained information about “a long-term organized operation<\/strong> aiming to\u00a0destabilize the Republic.<\/strong>” The prime minister convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council <\/strong>this morning. However, there were no updates on its outcome at the time of publication.<\/p>\n

From the Euromaidan to\u00a0J\u00e1n Kuciak<\/h3>\n

The premier was referring to Euromaidan<\/strong>, the popular uprising<\/strong> in February 2014, in\u00a0which Ukrainians forced pro-Russian president Viktor Janukovy\u010d<\/strong> to flee\u00a0after months of protests violently repressed by the police apparatus<\/strong>. In response to what Kyiv calls a Revolution of Dignity<\/strong>, Moscow unilaterally annexed Crimea<\/strong> and supported separatist forces<\/strong> in starting hostilities in the Donbas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to Fico, unspecified Western “experts” active in Slovakia, <\/strong>like\u00a0<\/strong>those who, according to the Russian narrative, were allegedly involved in the Ukrainian revolution 11 years ago<\/strong> and in the protests that have been shaking Georgia for\u00a0months<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>The prime minister assured that the intelligence services are\u00a0monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n

\"J\u00e1n<\/a>
A photo of J\u00e1n Kuciak and his partner\u00a0Martina Kusnirova (photo: Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption>
However, opposition forces have repeatedly questioned the Slovak civilian intelligence service’s impartiality<\/strong> and have urged them to be\u00a0subject to the scrutiny of a parliamentary commission<\/strong>. Currently, the premier appoints the head of the agency, now in the hands of Pavol Gaspar<\/strong>, son of Tibor<\/strong> who, in 2018, was commander of the police and was forced to resign – just like Fico<\/a>\u00a0– following the murder<\/strong> of journalist J\u00e1n Kuciak <\/strong>and his partner Martina Kusnirova. <\/strong>The senior Gaspar is now a\u00a0deputy for the SMER, <\/strong>Fico’s party.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The circumstances of the killing of Kuciak,<\/strong> who was investigating a high-level corruption case<\/strong> in which the ‘Ndrangheta was also allegedly involved<\/strong>, have never been clarified<\/strong>. However, many in Slovakia and abroad believe that the then-head of government played a role<\/strong>. Moreover, Fico himself<\/a> directly linked the events of these days with those of 2018, claiming that he was the victim of a plot<\/strong> by obscure\u00a0pro-Western forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serious accusations by the head of government, who dodged a no-confidence motion through a procedural ploy in Parliament, have so far not been substantiated by real evidence. Opposition forces accuse his executive of wanting to take Bratislava out of the EU and move it closer to Moscow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":416978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[30250,30251,30252,30180,26359,26360],"class_list":["post-416983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-coup-de-state-en","tag-euromaidan-en-2","tag-jan-kuciak-en","tag-oppositions-en","tag-robert-fico-en","tag-slovakia-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416995,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416983\/revisions\/416995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}