The governing coalition of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has lost its majority in Parliament after two deputies from the social-democratic party Hlas (Voice) were expelled from the party.
Robert Fico, a social-democratic politician with conservative positions criticized by Brussels and known for his close ties to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has been leading a coalition government since October 2023 after his party Smer-SD won the legislative elections.
This coalition also includes the party Hlas (Voice), a moderate left-wing party split from Smer-SD, and the nationalist party Slovak National Party (SNS), as reported by EFE.
Two deputies from the Hlas party have now been excluded from the parliamentary group of this party. Both deputies, Samuel Migal and Radomir Salitros, criticized a judicial reform undertaken by the Government, a reform that prescribed many offenses and foresees the abolition of the special anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office, an institution investigating several allies of Prime Minister Fico, whom he accuses of acting with political motivation.
„None of us wants early elections. We have to wait and see what negotiations will come, if any, and what will happen,” said Samuel Migal on Tuesday. He lamented the suffocating political tension in Slovakia, where numerous anti-government protests organized by the progressive and liberal opposition have taken place.
The latest protest was on Friday, with tens of thousands of participants demonstrating against what the Opposition considers to be the undemocratic, pro-Russian, and pro-Chinese drift of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
He was seriously injured last May in an assassination attempt committed by a sympathizer of the Opposition, who confessed to being dissatisfied with the Prime Minister's decision to halt military aid to Ukraine and his rebellious attitude towards the European Union.
The governing coalition of Prime Minister Robert Fico has now become a minority, with the three parties composing it totaling 74 out of the 150 mandates of the Bratislava Legislature after the exclusion of the two deputies. However, there is a small group of five unaffiliated parliamentarians, including two former members of Hlas party and three former members of the nationalist party SNS, none of whom has so far signaled a desire for the government to fall and early elections to be called.