Mind you, we are not criticizing him for what he said, he was even right about the violation of international law. It’s about where he said it. Bigger and more powerful statesmen like Fico are tiptoeing in front of Trump so as not to upset the world’s main narcissist, and the Nobel laureate presented him with her award in the hope of gaining his fleeting favor.
We were not surprised if our prime minister could only nod. We wouldn’t even blame him. A person who destroys the rule of law at home would be a hypocrite if he exposed violations of international law to others. Moreover, Fico already claimed in 2007 that there are no values in international politics, but always only interests, economy and power.
Okay, so let him behave accordingly and prioritize economic interests over international law, i.e. the billion-dollar nuclear power plant, which he obviously cares about very much. However, let him not then talk that there is no turnout, and he does not play at home as a defender of international law. Uploading a video in Slovak, which will never reach Trump, is not a sign of sovereignty, but of calculation. Silence is better than speaking empty words.
Victory is just a break
An even greater threat to the international order than the military adventure in Venezuela is Trump’s appetite for Greenland. However, not even the members of the committee for European affairs found out what Fico thinks about it, because Fico said that the summit of the European Council dedicated to Greenland was only informal, so he did not have to go to the committee.
This is perhaps an unnecessarily creative interpretation of the law. Fico should have gone to the European committee if only because it is good political manners. And because, according to the constitution and customs, public authorities are supposed to respect and cooperate with each other. Instead of explaining, however, he could only use a convenient video from the plane, in which he does not have to face questions.
He described the extraordinary summit as a “super-expensive dinner in Brussels”, boasted that Smer wanted to change the leadership of the European Union a long time ago, scolded the EU for not having the courage to express its own opinion on fundamental foreign policy issues and added his favorite joke that the same applies to the EU as it does to a “massage salon”. If he is not doing well, it is not enough to change the beds, you have to change the wiring.
We appreciate that he didn’t use the words “brothel” and “prostitutes” as he likes to do, but we’d rather hear his opinion on Greenland and the world situation. He didn’t say a word about it. So far, however, it looks like the worst crisis around Greenland has been averted for now. Donald Trump ruled out the use of military force and even backed away from a plan to impose tariffs on European countries to punish them for supporting Greenland.
The US president described the plan he agreed with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as “excellent”, so it looks like Fico has been spared having to take a stand. The prime minister can be happy, but nothing is won. As long as Donald Trump is in office, any such “victory” is just a pause before the next international crisis, or before the continuation of the same one.
We will need a Prime Minister who has a plan and does not sleep righteously. Instead of looking for fictitious coup plotters and telling old jokes, it would be necessary to govern. Because although Robert Fico and his colleagues cannot subvert the state, Trump’s disruption of the world order threatens Slovakia much more than any coup that the government invents.
