What is to expect of Slovakia’s anti-Ukrainian coalition?
The leader of the Voice/Hlas party, Peter Pellegrini, has said his party’s board has decided to support a coalition with Robert Fico’s Smer and Andrej Danko’s SNS.
Preliminary, Mr Fico will be prime minister, and Mr Pellegrini, the parliament’s speaker.
Mr Pellegrini said his party will not negotiate with other political forces, including the liberal Progressive Slovakia, but will focus on forming a coalition and government in the above format.
It will be a coalition with 79 votes out of the required 76.
There are many arguments and explanations for why this particular coalition format was possible for Smer + Hlas + SNS.
The key thing is that this is no surprise. This is the coalition that the voters of the three parties wanted, and their opinions, values, and beliefs coincide most—even if not completely.
This coalition is the biggest threat to Ukraine: Slovakia is currently facing difficult social and economic problems, and there is little chance the new coalition and government will make a significant difference.
Therefore, they will need to find someone to blame for the fact that "Slovaks continue to live badly", and Ukraine and the war in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian refugees, may become the ones who the ruling parties will try to pin all the problems on.