Fico would like to rule with an iron hand, but even this is not possible for him. He cuts the branch he is sitting on
Democratic Slovakia was founded on the foundations of the Velvet Revolution, but… she very quickly began to depart from her ideals. Love, truth and freedom were disappearing from the speeches of our highest representatives – with few exceptions – at the same pace as a new elite took over the young democracy.
The first three Smer governments were primarily concerned with power and maintaining it, the fourth focused on revenge. – Damn it, we'll drive them away! Don't be afraid, if we all try, there won't even be a greasy stain left behind on September 30, announced Fico, obsessed with the desire for revenge, even before the elections, at a rally in August 2023. After more than two years of his fourth government, we see not only revenge, but also its effects, which are two opposites.
On the one hand, we have a complete collapse of state management. A Prime Minister locked in an isolated world where his clique members keep him away from reality, he only meets with trusted cadres or extras who are transported to party rallies by bus. Many of them don't even know where they are going.
Does this mean that Smer and the people around Fico are losing, or maybe have already lost, faith in their own supporters? And that if the “tour participants”, i.e. all those enthusiastically clapping extras in the audience, knew what was really going on, the buses would be half empty? This is similar to scammers who lure gullible people to “social gatherings”to then sell them pots, pans, knives, bedding and God knows what else at inflated prices.
Robert Fico's first exposé. Bratislava, August 3, 2006EPA/Tomas Hudcovic/PAP
Fico surrounded himself with mediocrities who, just a few years ago, were third- and fourth-rank politicians in Smer. They were not taken into account even at the district level. In fact, many of them were ashamed, but they had to get 150 names for the list of candidates from somewhere. Today they form the backbone of Fico's government.
It is impossible to govern effectively with such people even in good times. Fortunately, with such people, it is impossible to introduce an autocracy like Viktor Orban. What they are great at is spreading bad mood and frustration. What they leave behind is burnt earth and poisoned wells. Quarreling families, damaged relationships, lost trust, anger and hatred.
Reverse: society awakening
— What will happen to Slovakia if Fico wins the elections? — asked Karl Schwarzenberg's Slovak friends in September 2023, just before Fico's return to the government. This wise man replied that we Slovaks would have to wake up. And this is the other side of this symbolic coin that we have been paying since the fourth Smer government took power. Slovak civil society is becoming more and more resilient.
From the opinions and feedback from people that we receive via social media or during discussions throughout Slovakia, it is easy to read that the feeling of powerlessness is actually much stronger than we think. And note – we are talking about people from towns and villages all over the countrynot only about the inhabitants of Bratislava or the so-called liberal living room.
Anti-government protest in Bratislava, December 16, 2025.EPA/Jakub Gavlak / PAP
For years, populists and nationalists have been trying to convince us of a vision of a ruthless fight between the countryside and the city, working with intellectuals. They praise a strong state based on a Carpathian-type leader who will save everyone and everything. They point to liberalism and progressivism as their main enemies. They keep repeating the fight between the lower classes and the elites, common sense against Brussels bureaucrats and the “Bratislava salon”. They call for a fight against “dirty anti-Slovak prostitutes” in the media, against multiculturalism and globalization, which they present as a threat to the nation state. Of course, Slovak, no other.
And although they managed to deceive and manipulate quite a large part of the population, they did not manage to completely polarize Slovakia, and certainly not between the regions and Bratislava. Luckily. That's why we meet and see them all over the countryy tens of thousands of people ready to resist and oppose autocratic politicians.
There are still many people in Slovakia who have not given in to the pressure
No one in the history of European tyrannies became an autocratic leader overnight. For this he needed support, consent, or at least expected submission, turning a blind eye to what he was doing, looking away… This is what Smer, Fico and his henchmen have not yet managed to achieve to the extent they would like and need.
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Therefore, today we have every right to feel that we as a society are more resilient. There are people in the judiciary, prosecutor's office, police and other areas who did not give in to pressure and adhere to the principles of professionalism. They have not become a tool in the hands of politicians. They weren't broken. Let's look at culture, environmental protection, health care, education… There are voices of resistance and resilience everywhere. In addition, there are local governments, non-governmental organizations and some media.
According to estimates nearly 90 thousand people gathered in squares all over Slovakia in November. In heavy rain and cold. Wet and cold, they stood shoulder to shoulder to confirm that they wanted change. That they do not want a policy oriented “to the four corners of the world”, as Fico talks about, but a clear vision of prosperity, freedom and democracy.
Many, including the Prime Minister himself and the ruling party, will remember for a long time his complete defeat at the meeting with Poprad high school students and clappers who were brought there to obediently applaud their boss's speeches. Apart from the fact that it was pathetic and desperate on the part of the Prime Minister, he encountered resistance that he did not expect and to which he is unable to respond.
It is the involvement of young people, school and university students, that has become an extremely strong moment of this year's November 17 celebrations. 36 years after the Velvet Revolution, it was they who most loudly admitted its legacy and co-responsibility for the future of Slovakia. Fico attacks whoever he can, and it often earned him political points, but attacks on children and young people are unforgivable.
The same happened in February 2018, when Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were murdered. The murder of an investigative journalist and his beloved pushed people to the squares. And not only the voters of the then opposition stood there, but also those who did not vote and people who voted for Smer. And they didn't stand there just because it was an attack on democracy and the victim was a journalist who exposed scandals related to Fico's rule. It was the death of two young people standing on the threshold of adult lifewhich caused the largest wave of opposition since November 1989.
Protest after the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. Bratislava, March 16, 2018EPA/CHRISTIAN BRUNA / PAP
And today it is the young people who get us out of our seats again. Students like those whom the Prime Minister maliciously “sent” to fight in Ukraine, thereby irreparably tarnishing his reputation.
Will the situation in Slovakia only get worse?
Regardless of how we want to look at 2026, there is no positive scenario. It would be positive if it was as bad as 2025. You can complain that why do we need such doom and gloom, that we need hope and optimism. And it's true. We really need this. But let us inculcate them where we have reason to do so. The economic or political situation will not get better.
The government also failed in the third round of budget consolidation and announces further rounds. It creates more and more poor people and reaches into the pockets of entrepreneurs, employers and employees. Prices of goods and services are rising. And although there is talk of taxing the rich, the effects of consolidation will be felt most severely by middle class people – especially families with children.
You may remember the recording from January 2024 in which Fico pretends to hold a meeting with ministers and directors of institutions to announce the end of price increases. The childish staging had an influence on the voters of the ruling coalition. At least for a moment they believed him. For a moment they closed their eyes to the reality that quickly hit them in the face.
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, opens a new section of the D1 motorway near Žilina, December 22, 2025.CTK/Dalibor Gluck / PAP
Looting of shops by thieves' gangs, when the saleswomen, out of fear for their health and lives, prefer to turn their backs, they certainly do not make Slovakia a safe country. Nor thefts in basements and garages, which the police cannot even document. Finally, thanks to changes in the penal code, it is no longer a serious matter, no crime, but a misdemeanor. And although after several months of denying reality, Fico's cabinet decided to reverse the changes, the big fish can sleep (and steal) peacefully. However, we will only deal with the recidivism of minor thefts.
So the question is: where is the stability, order and social security that Fico talked about before the elections? Where are the low prices that Hlas promised? And who will be responsible for all this, since Smer (and actually also people from Hlas) have been in power here with two breaks since 2006?
A ship stuck in the mud
20 years after the first government led by Fico took power, we are facing one of the most difficult years. In 2026, economic problems will deepen and they will be felt by all who earn their living by honest work. People will become more and more nervous and desperate.
Instead of solutions on how to counteract this, coalition politicians are already showing that they will want to cover the economic crisis with a fight against an alleged internal enemy. Fico likes to repeat that it is up to the law enforcement agencies how they will act towards the people who led the state and institutions in 2020-2023, when he was in the opposition and was afraid of being arrested, like many of his people.
We can expect further pressure on honest officers, on people from the prosecutor's office, and further weakening of control institutions. The coalition will try to hide the pathetic economic reality by radicalizing its language and further attacks.
Fic's former coalition partner, three-time prime minister Vladimir Meciar, initially tried to mask the reality of life in Slovakia with a façade of democracy. But this façade fell away, revealing a truth that had little to do with democracy. In fact, it is a miracle that Meciar was defeated in the 1998 elections, before the elections lost their meaning and became just a spectacle, like under communism.
Robert Fico and Vladimir Meciar. Bratislava, June 16, 2009Jan Koller / PAP
The Meciarian nomenklatura did not build a state based on independent, professional and self-confident institutions. She did not build the house on strong foundations, with good construction, the best possible materials and functioning infrastructure. It was not modeled on traditional, proven, well-functioning and profitable democracies. They simply built a garden latrine from a few rotten boards that they painted with the Slovak tricolor flagto create a façade of democracy.
Façade democracy. That's what it's called. Today it is more and more visible that with each month of Robert Fico's rule, our country is sinking deeper and deeper. We sink to the muddy bottom. Or maybe it's not a mule, but something worse. Maybe it's the contents of that cesspool that Meciar built hereand which for 32 years we have not been able to rebuild into a functional and stable house.
