Russia May Be About to Get a New Friendly Leader in Europe
Former premier Robert Fico could seal an unlikely comeback in Slovakia’s election, and he wants to end military aid to Ukraine.
Fico arrives for an election rally in Michalovce, Slovakia, on Sept. 6.
Photographer: Petr David Josek/AP PhotoWhen Slovakia’s longest-serving prime minister was forced out of office in 2018 following the biggest mass protests since the communist era, he grinned and vowed that he’d be back. Few, though, took him seriously.
Robert Fico saw his closest ally defect to form a new party, prosecutors seek to put him and his associates behind bars for alleged corruption and his Smer party collapse to a record low in opinion polls. Yet reaction to the war in Ukraine has created a path back to power that would further test the European Union’s ability to remain united against Russian belligerence, even more so after Poland’s recent spat with Kyiv.