The left-right ruling coalition of the Slovak populist prime minister Robert Fico is split over whether to back the governor of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), Peter Kažimír, for another six-year term in office after the current one expired at the end of May.

Kažimír was sentenced last month to a €200,000 fine, which can be turned into a one-year prison term if not paid, for bribing the ex-president of the country’s customs service, František Imrecze, in 2017 with €48,000 to secure privileged treatment of companies eligible for tax returns and other favours. Kažimír denies wrongdoing.

Fico backed Kažimír against opposition calls for his resignation after the verdict, openly casting doubt on the court case, stating that the ruling “raises a question whether it served political goals of the opposition and ruling parties,” but did not provide any further evidence for his claim.

However, the prominent hawkish member of the European Central Bank's governing council does not appear to have the backing of Fico’s Smer party for another term, while Smer’s ruling coalition allies, centre-left Hlas and far-right SNS parties, support Kažimír’s continuation at the helm of NBS for another term.   

“We have many principled reasons for which we say that Peter Kažimír is not a suitable candidate for the governor of NBS. Hlas-SD needs to come up with somebody else,” Fico was quoted as saying by state broadcaster STVR.

The NBS governor is appointed by the President of the Slovak Republic following a nomination backed by the National Council (parliament) and the government.  

The continuation of Kažimír’s mission at NBS could be another friction point in the ruling coalition, whose narrow majority Fico restored just in March after a cabinet reshuffle.  

“We already saw what happened last year, when the coalition agreement was put into doubt,” Chairman of Hlas and Minister of Interior, Matuš Šutaj Eštok, told the media after he said that Hlas will nominate Kažimír for the next term.

Last autumn, rows inside the coalition culminated in open rebellion from legislators in Hlas and SNS, but Fico was eventually able to quell the situation, which left the country’s parliament paralysed for most of the winter.  

Last week, Fico also recalled on his Facebook page that Kažímír “stood in the first row of the political treason in Smer, from which Hlas came into being,” recalling the splitting of Hlas from Smer in 2020, just months after Smer lost the 2020 elections in the aftermath of mass demonstrations sparked by the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.     

Speculation in Bratislava abounds that Fico gave up on completing the current parliamentary term in 2027 amid mounting economic pressures and began gearing up for early elections this or next year. A source with close knowledge of the Smer party operations told bne IntelliNews that the party began purchasing campaign posters.

In this situation, Fico may not feel comfortable having another high-profile corruption case linked to the public officials backed by his cabinet, though local analysts frequently point out that personal revenge plays an important role in Fico’s decision-making since his improbable return to power in the autumn of 2023.   

Since 2023, Fico has been attacking liberal media and NGOs, which he holds responsible for his downfall in 2018, including the spreading of conspiracies of an alleged brewing coup attempt against his sitting cabinet, but Fico is also said to have genuinely quarrelled with the Hlas members who deserted Smer.

In 2010, Kažimír became a vice chairman of Smer but resigned his membership of the party following his appointment as NBS governor in 2019.