Robert Fico

Robert Fico
Prime Minister of Slovakia
Incumbent
Assumed office  04 July 2006
President	Ivan Gašparovič
Preceded by	Mikuláš Dzurinda
Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Slovak National Council until 31 December 1992
In office 23 June 1992 – 04 July 2006
Born	15 September 1964 (1964-09-15) (age 45) Topoľčany, Slovakia
Political party	Smer-SD

Robert Fico (September 15, 1964 in Topoľčany) is the current Prime Minister of Slovakia (since July 4, 2006).

His relatively new left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy (Slovak: "SMER – Sociálna demokracia") was the winner of the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the votes.

Life

A lawyer, Fico acquired his legal education in the communist Czechoslovakia. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the Comenius University at Bratislava and later worked for the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1987.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, following the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), which was a modern successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia. As a political appointee Fico also represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights.

In 1999, Fico found a new party called Smer - socialna demokracia (Direction - the social democracy). Although at first presented as a centrist party, the Fico's new party project soon shifted towards a more leftist rhetoric, the part of the political spectrum having been left vacant after the disintegration of Fico's previous party, the SDL.

Fico soon became one of the most popular politicians in Slovakia. His rhetoric was most often aimed at the ongoing reforms being carried out at the time by the right wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda. The reform's negative impacts increased the appeal and popularity of Fico's rhetoric.

In the parliamentary elections of 2002, Fico's SMER received 13.46% of the votes and became the third largest party. The result was much lower than the pre-election estimates and Fico openly called it a failure. Nevertheless SMER became the second largest opposition party after HZDS.

Election victory

In the following elections in 2006 SMER won with 29.1% of the votes and formed a coalition government with Vladimír Mečiar's HZDS and Ján Slota's SNS.

Both Mečiar and Slota were a part of the government coalition between the years of 1994 to 1998 during which Slovakia's EU and NATO negotiations were stopped due to alleged insufficiences in various spheres of the government and unclear privatization transactions (alleged asset stripping). At that time, Fico, as a member of the opposition, was one of Mečiar's and Slota's critics.

As a result of Fico's decision to form government with the Slovak National Party, considered to be too nationalist by some, the Party of European Socialists, decided in 2006 to suspend Fico's party candidacy. In late February 2008 the Assembly of PES decided to rehabilitate the candidacy after the commitment of SMER and SNS towards the principles of minorities respect and social solidarity.

Domestic policy

Before taking the office, Fico declared opposition to reforms carried out or started by the previous government, but adopted a more cautious approach in March 2007.^[1] Any attempts to change the government spending are limited by the fact that - by c. 2008 - the country has to fulfil the very strict Maastricht criteria to be able to adopt the euro as its new currency. The new government has slightly modified the radical flat tax system introduced by the previous government in that a special, lower VAT was imposed on medications and books (there is an unofficial announcement that the same policy will also include food products if there is a dramatic increase in poverty after the planned currency changes involving the adoption of the Euro). Similarly the structure of lump-sum deductions for income tax was changed. In social and health care system, the previous government left the Fico government with considerable (current and hidden future) debts and deficits, which then had to be solved. As a result, intense discussions about modifications in the pension reform have taken place, the first planned change as of mid-2007, being the removal of the current upper limit for the obligatory pension system contributions (as used in the neighbouring Czech Republic for example). In health care, fees that people had to pay when visiting any doctor or hospital, introduced by the previous government, were abolished and there has been a proposal to replace the current system of multiple health insurance companies, seen by many as a waste of operating and administrative costs, by a system of a single (publicly owned) health insurance company, as in other countries such as Canada. Seemingly insurmountable problems with the proposals for the "renationalisation" of the existing private insurance companies, however, has essentially resulted in the idea being scrapped in mid-2007.

Foreign policy

Robert Fico with Mirko Cvetković during the state visit to Serbia

In foreign policy, government of prime minister Fico had some difficulties in European space perception, given that he has formed a coalition with the Slovak National Party, but the distrust has been overcome in February 2008 ^[2] (social democratic parties in the Czech Republic and Austria with same nationalistic tendencies are notable exceptions).

Also, he is an opponent of the planned construction of new US ABM and radar systems in military bases in the neighbouring Czech Republic and Poland (also criticized by Russia and Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg foreign minister^[3]) and one of the first steps upon taking the office was a military pullout from Iraq, which had been part of his election campaign. His foreign trips in the first year included visits to China and Libya, for which he has been criticized by his political opponents, despite the fact that various recognized western leaders underwent the same visits.^[4][5][6]

Robert Fico meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadić.

Robert Fico has strongly opposed unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, a south province of Serbia. Fico said that that the declaration of independence is analogous to the Munich Agreement that allowed the Third Reich to annex the Czechoslovak territory of Sudetenland. He and said that he does not exclude the possibility that Slovakia will never recognize Kosovo because he considers Kosovo not as an independent territory but as an integral part of Serbia where Serbs, and members of the Albanian ethnic minority live.^[7] Fico has also said that the creation of an independent Kosovo was a violation of international law, and added that it would be very difficult for his country to recognize Kosovo.^[8] He received support in the National Council from all parties, ruling and oppostion, except for Party of the Hungarian Coalition. His deputy Prime Minister Dušan Čaplovič, said that by declaring independence without Serbian consent, Kosovo broke international law and created a precedent. He also claimed a connection between Kosovo and the problem of organised crime.^[9] In October 2008, Robert Fico reiterated the Slovak opposition to Kosovo's independence. He stated that Slovakia is suffering no pressure to recognise Kosovo because it left no room for pressures from the very beginning. He said he is "convinced that the declaration of Kosovo's independence was not in line with international law" and that "Slovakia's position on the Kosovo issue is well known and we see no reason to change it. Serbia and Slovakia share the same opinion, and that is that international law must be taken into account, otherwise, nothing makes sense. If there is at least a tiny piece of justice in this world, the International Court of Justice in The Hague will have to confirm it".^[10]

Robert Fico commented the arrest of Radovan Karadžić by saying "It is very good that investigations into all war crimes are taking place. Everybody who is responsible for brutal treatment and murder will be prosecuted and eventually convicted. I think we need to see whether someone was responsible for the deaths of so many civilians in Serbia during the bombing. That’s my view".^[11]

Cabinet of Robert Fico

Main article: Fico Cabinet

References

External links

• Short biography on government website