Daily Times

In the hometown of Slovak election winner Robert Fico, residents who voted for the left-wing populist leader said they hoped he would solve domestic economic woes and played down his pro-Russian views.

Many in Topolcany, a town of 25,000 people where Fico’s Smer-SD party scored particularly highly, brought up inflation, which was 12.8 percent last year in Slovakia and is forecast to be 10.9 percent this year. “I expect him to keep his promises,” said Roman Klamar, a car mechanic, at a local housing estate. Klamar said he hoped Fico would curb the rise in energy and food prices fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “But I know it won’t be fast or easy,” he said.

“He won because he has a lot of friends and is well known, especially here in Topolcany,” Klamar told AFP.

Smer-SD party secured a clear win in Saturday’s general election, scoring 23 percent against 18 percent for the second-ranked centrist Progressive Slovakia party.

In Topolcany district, the party won nearly 39 percent.

Fico, who led the country’s government three times in 2006-2010 and 2012-2018, will be tapped to form the new cabinet on Monday. The former lawyer was born in Topolcany on September 15, 1964.

He cast his vote with his mother on Saturday in the nearby village of Velke Dvorany. He won the vote campaigning to refuse to take in migrants or continue military aid to Ukraine, but also on criticism of the EU and NATO.

On a sunny afternoon in Topolcany, six elderly ladies sat on two benches on a perfectly trimmed lawn by the local central church. Excited and gesticulating wildly, the Fico voters also complained about rising prices. “He could make electricity and gas and food less expensive,” said one woman with red hair, who declined to give her name. “The main thing is he doesn’t want to freeze our pensions like Progressive Slovakia,” she said, adding that she “voted for Fico and always will”.

Progressive Slovakia, which has called for greater LGBTQ rights and opposes draconian laws on marijuana use, is particularly hated by Fico supporters.

“We would never let them decide in this country. They are teaching porn to children, that a man should make love to a man,” said the red-haired woman. “Fico is famous worldwide. People hate him because he fights for the truth,” she said.

Another retired Fico voter, who was walking her dog in a side street and also declined to give her name, said: “I don’t know why they use him as a bogeyman, we’ve got worse politicians here.” “They say we should be afraid he will team up with Russia, that’s nonsense,” she added.

“He says we can’t be without the EU and NATO and he’s right, we’re a small country.” Confectioner Katarina Kralikova said Fico was “the most intelligent” Slovak politician. “He can speak well, he can present himself in public,” waving aside allegations of Smer’s murky financing with a “no comment”.

Kralikova said she had voted for Hlas-SD, a breakaway party from Smer seen as the kingmaker and Smer’s logical coalition partner after coming third in the vote.

“I did that to help Fico,” she said. “I know they’ll do well together and I’ll be happy. I’ve got a year until retirement and all I want is peace and quiet.”