The odds that Slovakia’s next government will be led by former Social Democrat Prime Minister Robert Fico, who leads the Smer-SD party and wants to end Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine, increased on Tuesday after the leader of another left-wing party, Hlas (Vocea ), Peter Pellegrini, announced that from now on he will only consider the option of a coalition with Fico, reports Agerpres with reference to Reuters.

The “Voice” party has the key to forming a majority in the parliament based on the results of the parliamentary elections on September 30. The Smer-SD party, a conservative social democratic formation, won 23% of the vote, followed by the liberal formation from which President Zuzana Čaputova came, the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, which received 17% of the vote, and in third position with 14.7 Vocea, a moderate left-wing party that broke away from Smer-SD, got % of the vote.

In 2018, Peter Pellegrini, the leader of “Glas” replaced Fico as the head of the government.

Pellegrini said on Tuesday that he is in favor of a coalition with Fico’s party and the nationalist formation of the Slovak National Party (SNS) instead of the alternative of a four-party coalition with right-wing formations that, in foreign policy, want to maintain military support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. And at the European level, they have positions close to Brussels, while Fico is closer to the approaches of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and since the election campaign has declared that he opposes military aid to Ukraine.

However, in the same statement, Pellegrini noted that the presence of his party in the future government coalition will guarantee the continuity of Slovakia’s foreign policy. “I am convinced that the implementation of our social democratic policy and the promotion of most of our program will be possible through this strong tripartite coalition,” with Smer-SD and SNS, he explained at a press conference. But “if the government changes its foreign policy orientation, Glas will cease to be part of such a government,” Pellegrini warned.

During post-election negotiations, he turned down an offer from Progressive Slovakia (PS) to become prime minister in a coalition led by that party.

The center-right governments that ruled Slovakia after Russia went to war against Ukraine unconditionally supported Kyiv with arms and ammunition, supplying the Ukrainian military with Slovakia’s entire fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets, the only S-300 anti-aircraft system that Slovakia had, 16 Zuzanna-2 howitzers, 30 BVP-1 BMP, as well as other weapons and a significant amount of ammunition.

President Zuzana Chaputova, a staunch supporter of military aid to Ukraine, halted the supply of new weapons to Kyiv last Thursday after potential future prime minister Robert Fico opposed such aid. (Agerpress)