Parliament should look into the suspicions that the United Kingdom meddled in the Slovak parliamentary election in 2023, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated on social media on Tuesday. He added that he wants to find out to what extent the British campaign helped the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party and whether the campaign spending limit was exceeded in this case.
"The Slovak Parliament should deal with two issues in the near future. First, to what extent the British campaign and British money helped 'obedient Slovakia' [a reference to Progressive Slovakia - ed.note]. How many percentage points less would they have had if the campaign hadn't been there? I would say many percent. Secondly, whether British money in favour of 'obedient Slovakia' means that the legal limit for spending on parliamentary election campaigns was exceeded," he emphasised.
The premier again spoke of unfair fighting by PS. He therefore thinks that the issues in question are absolutely legitimate. "They could lead Parliament into quite serious decisions," he pointed out, assuming that the coalition SNS will share a similar opinion with him on this matter. However, he said he doesn't know the stance of the coalition Hlas-SD party, as he doesn't know what the current level of Hlas-SD's inclination towards PS is, claiming that this has always been present in the party's top structures. "It is up to Hlas whether it has the same clarity of mind as Smer-SD and, I believe, SNS about what happened in the summer and autumn of 2023 before the election. And whether Hlas realises that as a party it could have had a significantly better result," he added.
At the end of July, the Prime Minister declared that the UK Foreign Office paid influencers via a media agency to influence the Slovak parliamentary election in 2023 to the detriment of Smer-SD and to the benefit of PS, referring to a story published on the marker.sk website. The British Foreign Office has denied that it tried to influence the outcome of the election or to encourage people to vote for or against a particular party. It said its activities were aimed at encouraging young people to take part in the democratic process in their countries by participating in elections.
According to PS leader Michal Šimečka, Fico is trying to cover up the scandal surrounding the ambulance service tender.
“Fico is clearly desperate. He needs the public to talk about anything other than the massive scandal — the two-billion-euro deal, the ambulance tender. That is exactly what Parliament is supposed to debate on Wednesday (13 August)," Šimečka said.
The PS leader also urged Fico that if he genuinely wants Parliament to address serious issues facing the country, he should ensure that Smer-SD MPs attend Wednesday’s session on the minister’s dismissal.
Hlas-SD leader and Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok dismissed claims suggesting his party is leaning towards the opposition as fabricated and, in his video on social media, questioned why coalition partners would accuse Hlas-SD of such a move, arguing they would not be in power without his party’s decision to join the coalition in the first place.
Šutaj Eštok emphasised that with its political decision, Hlas-SD played an instrumental role in putting together the current government and coalition. “We earned open hatred from the entire liberal sphere, the media, and professional haters for that decision. That is why I sincerely do not understand why we are being accused of a fictional inclination towards the opposition by coalition partners — who would not be governing today without our decision,” he said.
Source: TASR
