The potential kingmaker in Slovakia’s fall election criticized his frontrunner rival for anti-US and anti-Ukraine rhetoric and said he would ensure the NATO and European Union country maintains its transatlantic orientation.
Peter Pellegrini, an ex-prime minister who leads the second-place Voice party, said his former boss and ally Robert Fico had vowed to stop military support for neighboring Ukraine and slammed EU sanctions against Russia so that he could win a few more percentage points of popularity in polls.
“I can’t imagine sitting together in the same government with Robert Fico,” Peter Pellegrini said in an interview Sunday.
Still, Pellegrini, who served as prime minister under Fico’s Smer party from 2018 to 2020 and as a deputy premier under Fico before that, didn’t explicitly rule out a potential tie-up between Voice and Smer after the elections slated for Sept. 30.
Much is at stake: With Fico railing against sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine, his return to office would upend EU unity on further measures, as well as a slate of bloc-wide policies on issues such as migration and energy.
Smer has seen a rebound in support since three-time premier Fico was ousted in 2018 in a wave of protests over the murder of an investigative journalist who wrote about corruption between Slovakia’s business elite and his administration.
He has particularly leaned on anti-war sentiment among poorer Slovaks. With the country of 5.4 million one of the EU’s most affected by Russian disinformation, he has warned that supporting Ukraine will drag Slovakia into the war, further spur Europe’s cost—of-living crisis and hurt the economy.
That puts Pellegrini in a good position to decide the shape of a future cabinet. He has repeatedly refused to cooperate with far-right forces and vowed to fulfill Slovakia’s commitments to its western partners and declined calls from Fico to commit to a coalition.
“I guarantee the continuity of our foreign policy orientation,” Pellegrini said.
Smer is “the party of the past,” Pellegrini said.
Pellegrini said Slovakia doesn’t have any more military equipment to send Ukraine, after it donated its 13 MiG-29 jets, an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and a fleet of vehicles. Slovak arms companies may be involved with future contracts for Ukraine’s army, he said.
