Vladimir Putin’s Russia could gain a new ally in the European Union at the end of this month if the current favorite in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections, the Smer-SD party led by former prime minister Robert Fico, confirms the polls, the newspaper said. Guardian.

Tiny Slovakia has proven to be one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since the start of Russia’s invasion last year, approving massive military aid to Kiev. If we talk about the cost of aid packages in relation to the population, then Slovakia would be one of the most important partners of Ukraine.

Among other things, in March of this year, the government of Bratislava announced that it would send modernized MiG-29 fighters to Kyiv. Slovakia thus became only the second country to commit to sending military aircraft to Ukraine, with Bratislava’s announcement coming only a day after Warsaw’s.

But now opinion polls show former prime minister Robert Fico, a politician known for praising Moscow, and his role model: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as the front-runner in the Sept. 30 parliamentary election.

If Fico’s party wins the parliamentary elections and manages to form a governing coalition, Slovakia could make a 180-degree turn in its aid to Ukraine and its wider policy in the European Union.

Robert Fizo accused Soros of overthrowing his government

Fico, a textbook populist, was the country’s prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and then again from 2012 to 2018, during which he railed against the West to his domestic electorate but still tried not to upset Europe’s international order.

But what happened next shook Slovakia to its core.

Jan Kuciak, a young investigative journalist who investigated suspected corruption in the Fisco government regarding EU subsidies, as well as the Italian mafia, was murdered in February 2018 along with his fiancee Martina Kushnirova.

Slovakia saw its biggest protests since the Velvet Revolution that led to the fall of communism, with tens of thousands of Slovaks taking to the streets for months.

Fico eventually relented and resigned, but not before accusing American billionaire George Soros of funding protests against his government.

The following year, Zuzana Chaputova, a former lawyer and environmental activist, won the presidential election, and a few months later led the formation of a reformist government.

However, soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic began and the resulting turbulence. Since then, Slovakia has had four prime ministers, with ruling coalitions falling apart over differences over measures to combat the pandemic, high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

The last government, led by former prime minister Eduard Geger, fell last December after a vote of no confidence in him. He served until June, when he asked the president to dismiss him.

Slovakia may again enter Russia’s orbit after the next elections

All this turbulence allowed for the remarkable return of Robert Fizo, who has drifted even further to the right in the time since he was in opposition. Regarding the war in Ukraine, he condemned “Ukrainian fascists” and criticized every decision of the Slovak government to send aid to Kyiv.

He calls President Chaputova an “American agent” and she blames a veritable “information storm” of Russian propaganda amid reports that up to 2,000 Facebook pages in Slovakia are spreading anti-Western propaganda.

On June 20, Chaputova announced that she would not run for a new term in next year’s presidential elections.

As for parliamentary elections later this month, the latest opinion poll, conducted between August 27 and September 2, shows Fico’s Smer-SD party with 21.6% of the vote, almost 6% more than Progressive Slovakia. the team is in 2nd place.

But with polls pointing to fresh elections with highly fragmented results, Fico will be in the best position to try to form a government.