Beware Orbán's man in Slovakia

Pro-Moscow presidential candidate Peter Pellegrini has a narrow lead

What happened?

Slovaks vote for president this Saturday, March 23rd. Autocrat Robert Fico’s ally Peter Pellegrini has a narrow lead. Now it’s emerged that Hungary’s Viktor Orbán had tried to help him back in 2020 — by organising a visit to Moscow.

The Arguments

• Robert Fico, whose government collapsed after it was implicated in the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who had exposed corruption in Slovakia’s elite, was re-elected Prime Minister last year, and has set about dismantling checks and balances.

• His main aim is to protect the corrupt. He has disbanded the special anti-corruption prosecutors unit, copied Berlusconi’s Italy by shortening the statute of limitations on corruption-linked crimes and weakened whistleblower protections. His next target is the public media, which he wants to turn into a propaganda mouthpiece, like in Hungary, or Poland during Law and Justice rule. Now he wants his ally in the presidential palace.

• But the biggest danger is Fico’s pro-Moscow position. Like Orbán, Fico can wield a veto in the European Council to block EU sanctions on Russia, and a friend for Orbán to help block aid to Ukraine.

Now Read…

• Investigative outlet VSquare’s exposé of Orban’s interference in Slovakia’s parliamentary election, where he helped Pellegrini by organising a visit to Moscow.

• A useful summary of Fico and Pellegrini’s pro-Moscow tilt

• DemocracyHub’s Zselyke Csaky argues Europe needs a strategic rethink to defend democracy.