The question currently hovering over relations between the two countries is whether a period similar to the Meciar era will begin again when the new national conservative Prime Minister Robert Fico takes office, and whether Slovakia can remain the Czech Republic, as one diplomat put it. The Republic is on the right track, or whether Fico is getting closer to the authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister.
The main conflict is the issue of Ukraine: Prague is at the forefront of supporting Kiev, while Fico wants to stop supporting Ukraine. One of his election slogans was: “No more bullets for Ukraine!” However, the sharp statements have not been followed by action so far, and the reported refusal of assistance turned out to be not entirely clear – wrote the author, who described what still exists according to official statements.
Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala is also eyeing Fico’s proximity. The two politicians met at the European Union summit in October. After that, Fiala said: “We may have differences on some issues, but we must find a common language. This is a duty and I do that.” Fico’s first visit to Prague is scheduled for November 24.
According to diplomatic sources, Fico’s demand that the Czech head of state also receive him constitutes an obstacle. According to the same sources, negotiations are now underway for Fico to declare his support for Ukraine. Prague is also trying to distance Slovakia from Orban diplomatically in other areas. The Czech government, which currently holds the successive presidency of the V4, did not comply with Fico’s request to hold a summit of the organization. In fact, Fico wanted to get the member states – the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – to reject the EU migration deal together. The agreement was rejected by Hungary and the outgoing Polish PiS government, supported by the Czech Republic.
Prague rejected Fico’s request, saying that he would wait for the formation of the new Polish government and the current head of the Polish opposition, the pro-European Donald Tusk, to assume the position of prime minister. Czech Foreign Minister Lipavski stated: “We not only want to meet, we want to deal with Central European politics.”
According to experts, Poland and the Czech Republic, led by Tusk, will put joint pressure on Fico to isolate Orban in the Visegrad Group.
Hungary is well aware of this. That is why Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó rushed to visit his Slovakian counterpart immediately after Planar’s visit to Prague. Planar said at the time that Bratislava “does not forget the value of good neighborliness in relation to Hungary.” However, at present, even in the first weeks after Fico took office, Bratislava is placing its bets first on the Czech Republic. In doing so, Fico’s government also decided in favor of the current pro-European and to some extent pro-Ukrainian Czech policy, he wrote. German wave Reporter.
