Slovak premier Fico makes way for deputy to defuse political crisis

Slovak premier Fico makes way for deputy to defuse political crisis
Peter Pellegrini has long been a rising star in the ruling Smer party. / Photo: CC
By bne IntelliNews March 16, 2018

Prime Minister Robert Fico, the dominant figure in Slovak politics for the past 12 years, resigned on March 15 to end a coalition crisis over the murder of a journalist, making way for his deputy, Peter Pellegrini. Slovak President Andrej Kiska accepted his resignation and authorised Pelligrini, currently deputy PM for investments and informatisation, to form a new government. Fico will remain an acting PM until the formation of a new government and he will continue as leader of Smer.

The Slovak governing coalition has been rocked by the murder last month of journalist Jan Kuciak, who was investigating alleged links between the Calabrian mafia and two members of the government office. The murder has added to simmering discontent with a series of government corruption scandals and has generated large public protests.

The main question, for now, is what influence Fico will keep from the background and whether his resignation will be enough to head off popular discontent with the current political situation.

Fico founded his leftist Smer party in 1999 and has won every election since 2006, ruling as prime minister for 10 of those 12 years, except for a short unstable two-year period when a centre-right coalition was in office. However, he has had serious health problems – reportedly undergoing a quadruple heart bypass – and there has long been speculation that he has become jaded and wanted to change down a gear or even leave domestic politics.

Pellegrini met with Kiska and handed him the support of 79 coalition MPs, who supported the resignation of Fico and pledged a support for a creation of a new government. Kiska, who had called for early elections, therefore backed down and agreed to Fico's demand that he would resign if his party could nominate his successor.

The current distribution of ministers among coalition partners of Smer-SD, a centrist largely ethnic Hungarian party Most-Hid and a far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) will be maintained. 

“All of the 14 coalition Most-Hid MPs have demonstrated binding support for a new government that will be set up after incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) resigns,” stated junior coalition Most-Hid head Bela Bugar at a press conference. Most-Hid was unanimous in supporting the proposal for Fico's resignation on March 14. The party had also called for an early election but backed down after Fico resigned. 

The second coalition party SNS welcomed the decision of Fico to resign on March 14 and plans to keep its three ministers at their places. SNS vice-chair Anton Hrnko said that this decision allows the coalition members to take a breath. "We're thus getting a new strength to implement the government manifesto which this coalition set in 2016," said Hrnko and added, that “I view prime minister's decision as a gesture towards Most-Hid's demands.”

Fico said during the speech that he will support Pellegrini and that he wants to be an active head of Smer-SD.  "We'll do our utmost at the Coalition Council, which will convene shortly, to enable the new prime minister to bring to Mr President some proposal as to who could be in the new government," said Fico, who called Pellegrini his personal friend and praised his professionalism.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am not saying goodbye at all. We will see each other soon at press briefs and as a head of the strongest party I will be part of the coalition council,” Fico said. “Mr President, you can be calm, I am not leaving, I will be an active chairman of the political party,” added Fico, raising speculation that he might try to steer the government from behind the scenes like Jaroslaw Kaczynski,  leader of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party in Poland.

Fico also attacked the opposition: "It would have thrown the country into instability. Just imagine those gentlemen and ladies from the opposition, I won't name names, how they would govern." Slovakia's opposition is a collection of small four rightwing parties ranging from Eurosceptics to populists and neo-fascists.

Pellegrini has no time limitation when to form a new government according to the Slovak constitution, but he said that it's in his interest "to make changes in the government over the course of several days and not weeks or months".

"The nomination of Peter Pellegrini is the most natural thing,” Fico told journalists in the Presidential Palace, side by side with Pellegrini, after he filed his resignation.

"It is immensely demanding and I admit I have not slept properly for two nights," Pellegrini told journalists after meeting with Kiska. 

"The change that took place occurred in a constitutional fashion. I can imagine that many people have been left unsatisfied and a preponderance of Most-Hid voters might consider this a quite contradictory signal to what Most-Hid kept declaring just a few days earlier. On the other hand, we don't know the specifics of informal deals concluded at the party's Republican council [on Monday, March 12]," political scientist Juraj Marusiak. According to him, Fico will keep considerable political clout as party chair.

Justice Minister and coalition Most-Hid Vice-chair Lucia Zitnanska said earlier that she won’t be part of the government. “First and foremost I've decided not to continue because I'm convinced that I cannot represent either this or the new government anymore," said Zitnanska. "My differing attitudes with SNS [Slovak National Party], but also with some members of the Smer-SD party no longer allow me to meet the expectations of the public," she added.

The opposition parties had called a no-confidence vote against Fico for March 19, which won't take place, in light of the fact that Fico resigned on his own.

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