{"id":417376,"date":"2025-01-28T19:17:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T18:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/28\/slovacchia-fico-modifica-costituzione\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T20:44:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T19:44:48","slug":"slovakia-pm-fico-wavers-as-political-crisis-deepens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/28\/slovakia-pm-fico-wavers-as-political-crisis-deepens\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovakia, PM Fico wavers as political crisis deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – These are convulsive days in Slovakia, where national-populist Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/strong>‘s grip on power is increasingly being questioned,\u00a0both from the streets, where thousands of citizens have demonstrated against the government’s pro-Russian drift,<\/strong> and from the same political forces that make up the majority, plagued by rifts\u00a0and internal disputes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The premier has relaunched by announcing\u00a0amendments to the Constitution<\/strong>\u00a0that would stand in open conflict with EU law as the prospect of\u00a0early elections<\/strong>\u00a0approaches and, with them, potentially, the\u00a0final reckoning<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The crossfire of oppositions…<\/h3>\n

The grip seems to be tightening increasingly on\u00a0Fico<\/strong>, among Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s closest allies in the EU along with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>. On the one hand, undermining him are the oppositions<\/strong>: the parliamentary<\/strong> one, whose various souls have succeeded in coalescing<\/a> to attempt to unseat him<\/strong> (actually without succeeding, because the vote on no-confidence that was supposed to be held last week was\u00a0skipped), and the one composed of the\u00a0civil society<\/strong>\u00a0associations that are manifesting to demand the resignation<\/strong> of the chief executive.<\/p>\n

The main accusations<\/strong> that the people\u2014as well as the minority parties in the House\u2014are levelling at the prime minister regard the erosion<\/a> of the Rule<\/strong>\u00a0of Law<\/strong> and democratic structures<\/strong> in Slovakia and, above all, of his increasingly pronounced realignment with the Kremlin<\/strong>, as demonstrated on multiple occasions in recent months: from his appearances on\u00a0the Putinian propaganda channels<\/a><\/strong> to his controversial pre-Christmas visit<\/a> in Moscow<\/strong>, via the hardening of his rhetoric against Ukraine<\/a> which he claims is threatening Bratislava’s energy security<\/strong>. Not surprisingly, the slogan of the anti-government protest<\/strong> that over the weekend reached\u00a0some 30 cities reads “Slovakia is Europe<\/strong>,” to imply that it is not Russia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Fico<\/a>
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (left) meets Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, Dec. 22, 2024 (photo: Gavriil Grigorov\/Afp via Sputnik)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So heavy is the pressure the premier feels coming from the streets that last week, after\u00a0<\/span>sliding the minority’s motion of censure<\/strong>, he\u00a0<\/span>publicly accused\u00a0<\/a>the tens of thousands of pro-EU protesters of\u00a0<\/span>planning a coup<\/strong>\u00a0with the help of unspecified “<\/span>foreign experts<\/strong>.”<\/span>\u00a0Who, according to the Russian propaganda vulgate that Fico himself amplifies (as does Orb\u00e1n), would be the same “Western infiltrators<\/strong>” responsible for organizing in 2014 the Euromaidan in Kyiv<\/strong>, which was actually a spontaneous popular uprising<\/strong> (known in Ukraine as the “Dignity Revolution”) against the pro-Russian drift<\/strong> of then-President Viktor Janukovy\u010d<\/strong>, who later fled and took refuge (as it happens) in Moscow itself.<\/p>\n

…and the majority<\/h3>\n

For the time being, Fico has refused to resign<\/strong>, arguing that if the impasse<\/i> is not resolved in the House, there will be no other solution than calling voters back to the polls<\/strong>. It was, moreover, the premier himself who had recently waved the bogeyman of an early vote<\/strong> (which would be the second in just a year and a half) in front of government allies if the latter failed to solve the problems at home. However, the problems appear to be with the premier, who could gamble on leading the country<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

Full square, strong atmosphere. There are many of us who will not allow Robert Fico to pull Slovakia out of the EU. And we will do it politely, in a democratic election.<\/p>\n

– Michal \u0160ime\u010dka (@MSimecka) pic.twitter.com\/AuEPBpdiOR<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“We are witnessing in real time the collapse of the fourth Fico government<\/strong>,” commented Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal \u0160ime\u010dka<\/strong>, around whom the parliamentary opposition is rallying and who could be the premier’s challenger in a possible election. The opposition will again seek to impale the prime minister<\/strong> next Feb. 4 in a second censure vote, the outcome of which\u00a0<\/strong>is difficult to predict given the delicate math of the House.<\/p>\n

The gamble on the Constitution<\/h3>\n

But the premier\u00a0kicked the ball back into the stands<\/a>, announcing that\u00a0a proposal to amend the Slovak fundamental charter would be<\/strong>\u00a0presented the day before (Feb. 3) and debated in the hemicycle in the March session. Fico has not commented so far on what he calls “political contests” among his allies since, he says, “my game is to change the Constitution<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Fico\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (photo: Joe Klamar\/Afp)<\/p>\n

Among the changes hinted\u00a0at by the premier would be the definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman<\/strong> (implying the legal recognition of these two genders only) and the prohibition of child adoption by same-sex couples<\/strong>. In addition, Fico would aim to insert a clause that legally binding acts issued by the EU shall be disapplied if they “conflict” with the Constitution<\/strong> itself.<\/p>\n

This last amendment would constitute a severe\u00a0vulnus<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0against one of the cardinal principles of the legal system the Union relies on:\u00a0the primacy of EU law over conflicting national provisions<\/strong>\u00a0in all member states. A similar case had already erupted in July 2021 when the\u00a0Polish Constitutional Court<\/strong>\u00a0challenged the\u00a0primacy of EU law<\/strong>\u00a0over domestic rules. The European Commission initiated yet another\u00a0infringement proceeding against Warsaw<\/strong>\u00a0(whose government at the time was PiS) and brought the question\u00a0before the\u00a0EU Court of Justice<\/strong>\u00a0in February 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The road for Bratislava’s prime minister, cornered by oppositions for his increasingly brazen closeness to Moscow and grappling with a majority that seems to have already dissolved, is becoming increasingly slippery. Amid censure motions and early elections, the head of government attempts a breakaway: “Let’s amend the Constitution.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":361388,"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":[30295,28802,27047,29109,30290,26359,26302,26360,28037],"class_list":["post-417376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-constitution-en","tag-elections-anticipated-en","tag-eu-en","tag-european-law-en","tag-protests","tag-robert-fico-en","tag-state-of-right-en","tag-slovakia-and","tag-smer-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417376","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=417376"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417384,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417376\/revisions\/417384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

On the other hand, it is the same majority that supports the government<\/strong> led by the Smer<\/i><\/strong> (Fico’s self-styled progressive party, suspended from the European Socialists in October 2023) that is slipping away piece by piece<\/strong>.\u00a0At the start of the legislature, the coalition executive, whose minor partners are the\u00a0SNS<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Hlas-SD<\/strong>, had<\/span>\u00a079 deputies out of the total 150 in the\u00a0N\u00e1rodn\u00e1 rada<\/strong><\/em>, the single-chamber parliament in Bratislava.<\/span>\u00a0But since last fall, it has begun to melt\u00a0like snow in the sun<\/strong>, first with the defeat of three elected members in the SNS<\/strong> and then, yesterday, with the withdrawal of the support<\/a>\u00a0by four deputies from the Hlas-SD<\/strong>, two of whom had just been expelled from the party.<\/p>\n