Former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his party signed a coalition agreement on Monday to form a new government that is likely to stop being overly concerned with quickly reducing its large budget deficit and instead focus on cutting aid to its Ukrainian neighbor, the News reported. ro with reference to Reuters.

Three-time prime minister Robert Fico, last in power in 2018, won the election on September 30, pledging to end Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine while maintaining a tough stance on migration, illegal migration and price hikes.

He advocates the need for peace talks for Ukraine as it grapples with an aggressive Russia – a line similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, but rejected by Kiev and its Western allies, who say it will only encourage Russian territorial ambitions.

Fico’s populist and left-wing party, SMER-SSD, reached an agreement last week with the center-left HLAS (Vocea) and the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) to form a coalition that would hold 79 of the 150 seats in parliament.

The coalition agreement signed on Monday, which could allow the president to appoint a new government, agreed on the distribution of cabinet posts, giving SMER the ministries of defense, finance, foreign affairs and justice.

HLAS, whose presence could moderate any drastic political changes in the proposed government, will be given the role of Speaker of Parliament.

President Zuzana Chaputova, who gave Fico a mandate to secure a parliamentary majority for the government after the election, said she would take the necessary procedural steps after receiving the names of proposed ministers, which the parties have yet to agree on.

Slovakia, a member of the European Union and NATO, is on track to run the biggest deficit on record in the eurozone this year as a result of slowing economic growth, higher spending needs and rising prices, the deficit is believed to have more than doubled. as high as the ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product set by the EU bloc.

Fico said he wanted to prevent austerity from affecting social standards and wanted to leave room for investment, signaling a slower pace of fiscal consolidation than recommended by the outgoing caretaker government. “Slovakia must support economic growth,” he said at a press conference.

Fico said that among his priorities would be raising living standards and a foreign policy that matches Slovakia’s EU and NATO membership status, but focuses on protecting national interests.

He told reporters that what he called the era of NGOs running the country was over.

Fico has a strained relationship with President Chaputova, whom he called an American puppet who acts as a representative of American financier and philanthropist George Soros. Kaputova sued Fitso for spreading lies about her.

The new government deal dashed the hopes of the liberal opposition to win as an ally of HLAS – third place in the election left it in the position of defining the government.

In Poland, by contrast, the liberal and pro-European opposition appeared set to form the next government on Monday after an election there likely left the ruling nationalists without a majority, according to exit polls.