Robert Fico

Robert Fico (Slovak: [ˈrɔbert ˈfitsɔ]; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who is currently serving as the prime minister of Slovakia since 2023. He previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He founded the Direction – Social Democracy (Smer–SD) party in 1999 and has led that party since its start. Fico holds a record as the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for over 10 years. First elected to Parliament in 1992, he was appointed the following year to the Czechoslovak delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe. Following his party's victory in the 2006 parliamentary election, he formed his first Cabinet. His political positions have been described as populist. After the 2010 parliamentary election, Fico served as an opposition member of parliament, effectively holding the position of the leader of the opposition. Following a motion of no confidence against the Iveta Radičová cabinet, Fico was re-appointed prime minister after leading Smer to a landslide election victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, winning 83 seats and forming a government with an absolute majority in Parliament, the first such since 1989. In 2013, Fico declared his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election. Fico lost the election to his political rival Andrej Kiska in the second round of voting on 29 March 2014. In March 2018, owing to the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak, Fico delivered his resignation to Kiska, who then charged Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with the formation of a new government. During the 2023 parliamentary election, Fico vowed to end military support for Slovakia's neighbor Ukraine, which was being invaded by Russia. His party Smer won 22.95% of the vote and 42 seats, becoming the largest party. Fico formed a coalition with Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas), a party founded in 2020 by Pellegrini and other dissidents of Fico's Smer, and with the Slovak National Party, and began his fourth term as prime minister on 25 October. Fico's government has stopped military aid to Ukraine, moved to take greater control of the media, and abolished the Special Prosecutor's Office that dealt with corruption. These moves sparked mass protests. On 15 May 2024, Fico was hospitalized after an attempted assassination. Following initial reports of his "life-threatening" condition, he underwent emergency surgery and is expected to survive.