Robert Fico is a Slovak politician serving his third term as Prime Minister of the Central European country. He survived a shooting attempt yesterday in the town of Handlová, where he was meeting with his supporters, and was hospitalized in critical condition.
#### Who is Fico?
According to a report published by The Guardian, Fico was born into a working-class family on September 15, 1964. He studied law and began his political career with the Communist Party shortly before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, which led to the dissolution of former Czechoslovakia. Fico represented Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights from 1994 to 2000 and founded his center-left party, Smer, in 1999 after the Democratic Left, the political heirs of the communists, rejected his candidacy for a ministerial position.
Smer achieved a landslide victory in the 2006 elections, bringing Fico to the prime minister's office two years after Slovakia joined the European Union. In 2009, he led the country into the Eurozone but was unable to form a coalition the following year despite winning the elections. Fico secured another significant victory in 2012 after a center-right coalition fell due to corruption allegations, and he won again in 2016 but had to resign two years later amid massive protests over the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. In October 2023, he returned for a third term as prime minister leading a populist-nationalist coalition.
Fico is known to be bold and outspoken, with an inclination toward bodybuilding, football, and fast cars.
#### What are His Policies?
Fico is an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that he would not allow the arrest of the Russian president under an international warrant if he came to Slovakia. He is also considered a shrewd politician; throughout his three-decade career, he has successfully navigated between pro-European Union mainstream positions and fierce anti-Western nationalist rhetoric, primarily aimed at local consumption, and has shown a willingness to change course depending on circumstances.
He stated that he only cares about Slovak interests and has been outspoken on many issues, attacking the European Union, international NGOs, insulting his opponents, falsely claiming a coup conspiracy, and alleging that elections would be rigged. He is also firmly opposed to immigration, which was a key factor in his 2016 electoral victory. Recently, he criticized same-sex marriage and described same-sex couple adoption as "deviance."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the leading voice in the country against masks, lockdowns, and vaccinations. Before taking office again last October, he capitalized on high pro-Russia sentiment in Slovakia to undermine the pro-Western governmental course.
