Fico sticks to anti-Ukraine stance, prefers exclusion from EU group

European socialists are facing renewed calls to expel Smer from their ranks. Leaders of the European Green Party said that their continued membership is “not understandable”

By Barbara Zmušková | EURACTIV.sk

Robert Fico, the winner of Slovakia’s election and leader of the Smer party, will not change his rhetoric on Ukraine and would rather “pay the price” of being excluded from the EU group his party is affiliated with, he said in a video posted on social media after the leader of the European Socialists threatened to expel him.

Fico described the words of European Socialist Party leader Stefan Löfven to Swedish media as “blackmail” and said he expected congratulations, not threats.

Particularly, Löfven said if the rhetoric continues and starts to be applied in the government, he will look into getting the expulsion process started.

“If our exclusion from the international party is to be a price for pursuing a genuine left-wing agenda in Slovakia and voicing sovereign opinions, we are prepared to pay such a price,” Fico said.

Fico called Löfven’s words “undemocratic and authoritarian” and repeated that his party has condemned Russia’s use of force in Ukraine but that their opinions on “peace in Ukraine” will not change.

Read more: Slovak elections: Hungary celebrates, EU switches to alert mode

Smer recently reiterated its stance on Ukraine, saying the European Union should seek a diplomatic solution and negotiate a peace agreement instead of sending arms to Ukraine.

Fico said his government would provide humanitarian aid and meet its financial obligations to Ukraine but would not send “another bullet”.

In the past, Fico has spread disinformation about the war being started by “Ukrainian fascists” and likened NATO forces stationed in Slovakia to Nazi forces.

European socialists are facing renewed calls to expel Smer from their ranks. Leaders of the European Green Party said that their continued membership is “not understandable”.

“It is the moment of truth for the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament. They have to decide if they really want to continue sitting in a group with MEPs from a party that is openly spreading Kremlin disinformation, attacking minorities and the freedom of press,” said Terry Reintke and Philippe Lamberts, co-presidents of The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.

Fico’s Smer party was first suspended from the Party of European Socialists (PES) for ten months in 2006 in response to its coalition government with the far-right Slovak National Party. Smer was also threatened with suspension in 2015 over its leader’s anti-migrant rhetoric.

Since then, the PES has given Smer half-hearted support, given its socialist roots and the need for the four MEPs that the party brings to the European Socialist and Democrat (S&D) Group in the European Parliament.

The EU socialists are currently facing mounting pressure from other political groups, especially the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which PES has always criticised for having Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in its ranks.

The Fidesz party has a similar to Smer rhetoric when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.

Although Fidesz was ultimately kicked out of the EPP, the EU socialists never took adequate measures to face their own problematic “child” Smer.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos)

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