The Slovak PM regrets not being able to join his Hungarian counterpart’s Ukraine peace mission
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, making his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt, praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent peace initiatives. Orban’s visits to Moscow and Kiev, aimed at finding a solution to the Ukraine conflict, drew criticism from other EU leaders.
“I want to express my admiration to the Hungarian premier for traveling to Kiev and Moscow without hesitating,” Fico told a crowd at Devin Castle near Bratislava, receiving a standing ovation.
“There are never enough peace talks and initiatives,” Fico added. “If my state of health allowed me to go, I would have loved to join him.”
Fico, who is still recovering from the May 15th assassination attempt, attributed the attack to radical opposition to his policies that prioritize Slovakia’s interests over those of Western powers. Slovakia’s Special Criminal Court stated that the shooter was largely motivated by Bratislava’s decision not to send weapons to Kiev.
Fico condemned attempts to downplay the attack, claiming that “the right to a different opinion has ceased to exist in the EU.”
“It is precisely the conflict in Ukraine that the EU and NATO have elevated, literally sanctifying the concept of a single correct opinion – namely that the war in Ukraine must continue at any cost to weaken the Russian Federation,” he said. “Anyone who does not identify with this mandatory opinion is immediately labeled a Russian agent and politically marginalized internationally.”
Fico, whose party Slovak Social Democracy (SMER-SD) won the last parliamentary election, criticized previous Slovak governments for blindly following Western demands, treating Russia and China as enemies and depleting Slovak military resources to support Ukraine. Fico’s government halted such aid, drawing ire from NATO allies.