He repeatedly insisted to his colleagues from Smer that he would cancel or change it at the first opportunity. In meetings with Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, he quietly completed the betrayal of the voters to whom he promised all this.
The prime minister did not have the courage
A significant aspect of the interview with the American guest is another missed chance to unequivocally label the Russian Federation as an aggressor and ask the United States to put pressure on Russian President Putin to end the war in the name of peace. If Robert Fico had done it, he could have been on the front pages of the European and American media. However, he did not have the courage to do so.
The Prime Minister also did not say what is essential from the point of view of our vital national interests, but also from the point of view of the interests of the EU and, more broadly, of the coalition of the willing: that Slovakia does not support a peace that would mean the capitulation of Ukraine, but that it is in favor of a peace that will preserve its state independence and provide it with security guarantees against a new attack by Russia.
In other words, he is against such a “peace” that would be a reward for the aggressor and set a precedent that the war in Europe is paying off. Robert Fico did not forgive himself for a direct attack on the Ukrainian president even during the negotiations with the American Secretary of State, which were watched throughout Europe and Ukraine. Criticism of the perpetrator of the crime against peace, which is Russian President Putin, was absent.
Instead, at the press conference, he relativized the responsibility for this war, placing it equally on the victim of aggression. In doing so, he did not help speed up the peace process, nor did he increase his authority in America, nor did he improve his relations with the EU and the coalition of the willing, and he did not strengthen his credibility in the community of states on which Slovakia depends for its existence, and which show us more and more clearly that they can do without us.
In one package with Orbán
Fico once again submissively sought the favor of Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. And he made even more enemies of the Ukrainians, who are struggling for bare state and national existence. They will certainly remind him of this when deciding on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Of course, in Central Europe, it is always a geopolitical reference to whom Washington pays attention, in what order and with what agenda. This is also why Rubio’s stop in Bratislava was read in one package, with the fact that immediately after it ended, he continued to Budapest to see Viktor Orbán.
To a leader who has years of warm political and ideological relations with President Trump and his MAGA camp. Expressing this fact is Trump’s message to a Hungarian friend on February 5th on the Truth Social platform: “Viktor Orbán is a true friend, a fighter and a WINNER. He has my full and unreserved support for re-election as Hungarian Prime Minister”.
Thus, in the spirit of the National Security Strategy, which openly aims to weaken the unity and internal cohesion of the EU, the American president supported the policy of its member state, which most and systematically disrupts and disintegrates this unity.
Much less significant Fico
Viktor Orbán is also Robert Fico’s main ally in his “sovereign foreign policy on all four sides of the world”, in his indiscriminate criticism of the EU. It is Viktor Orbán who is in the most open and fundamental conflict with the overwhelming majority of EU states due to the fact that he supports Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies.
At the same time, he went into open hostility towards Ukrainian President Zelensky and Ukraine as a state, and he is promoting a fake peace policy, behind which is hidden pressure to capitulate Ukraine to Russian demands. Not to mention the fundamental conflict with the EU on issues of the rule of law and democracy, due to which the payment of money from European funds to Hungary was suspended.
Not only the Reuters Agency therefore openly named Rubio’s visits to Bratislava and Budapest as a tour to strengthen ties with “pro-Trump” leaders in Slovakia and Hungary. And so the visit is also read in EU institutions and member states.
Robert Fico, who attended the CPAC meeting of the American extreme right in Washington last year, where Steve Bannon and Elon Musk were shouting, was confirmed by this meeting as a clear ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán in his weakening of EU unity, but at the same time as a much less important political figure for American President Trump.
What will the coalition partners do?
President Donald Trump’s direct and open interference in the election campaign in Hungary, to which must be added the state support for nationalist and conservative parties in EU member states mentioned in the American National Security Strategy, which aims to loosen European integration, raises a fundamental question:
How will the parties of the Slovak government coalition respond to this, which they considered to be impermissible interference in our election campaign in 2023, when the British government gave non-governmental organizations several tens of thousands of pounds to support the participation of young people in the elections? And they cut ties with the UK government because of it.
Will they protest on principle against the American interference in the electoral struggle of our southern neighbor, or will they impatiently wait for similar support of their electoral activities from the American ally in the next two years?
