A conservative populist party critical of NATO’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia emerged as the top vote-getter in Slovakia’s national elections Saturday.
But former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Smer party are still a long way from power as voters in the Eastern European nation spread their votes among a string of parties, with the pro-Ukraine Progressive Slovakia Party at 18%, just 5 percentage points behind Smer’s 23% in the preliminary tally.
Still, Mr. Fico’s first-place finish is the latest sign that the once-unquestioned backing for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 is beginning to wear on electorates in the West. The Slovakian vote came on the same day that skepticism about the price tag of Ukrainian aid forced the U.S. Congress to strip money for Kyiv from the final spending package that avoided a government shutdown in Washington.
Mr. Fico, who previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, has said he wants to end the country’s military aid to Ukraine and favors immediate peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
A social conservative who has also campaigned against gay rights, Mr. Fico is seen as part of the same EU-skeptical movement that includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party.
Slovakia’s current government has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, delivering weapons, ammunition and de-mining equipment to Kyiv and offering to train Ukrainian forces.
But Mr. Fico, whose party has traditionally enjoyed warm ties with Russia, was helped by the unpopularity of the current center-right coalition, a rising government debt crisis and popular fears that unchecked migration is threatening the character of a small nation of 5.5 million inhabitants.
With the vote so divided, Mr. Fico and Smer are not guaranteed to head the next coalition government. Michal Simecka of the Progressive Slovakia Party said there was still a good chance his party’s agenda would triumph in the party negotiations to come.
“It remains our aim for Slovakia to have after this election a stable pro-European government that will care for the rule of law and which begins to solve and invest into areas key for our future,” Mr. Simecka told supporters in Bratislava after the vote, according to the Reuters news agency.
Still, Smer will get first crack at forming the next government, and the third-place finisher in the vote, the conservative Hlas party, has ties to Mr. Fico and is said to favor an alliance with him.
President Zuzana Caputova is expected to give Mr. Fico first crack at forming a new government, and analysts said a three-party conservative alliance would already have a parliamentary majority.
Mr. Fico, whose previous government collapsed in scandal in part because of the killing of an investigative journalist, says he looks forward to a third term in power in Bratislava.
“We’re here, we’re ready, we’ve learned something, we’re more experienced,” he told supporters.
Despite holding out hope ahead of the coming party negotiations, Mr. Simecka acknowledged that Saturday’s results were a disappointment after polls showed his party apparently surging in the final days.
“It’s bad news for Slovakia,” he acknowledged. “And it would be even worse if Robert Fico manages to create a government.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.