Information about Robert Fico

Robert Fico
Robert Fico
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Political party	Direction - Social Democracy (Smer)

Robert Fico (15 september, 1964 in Topoľčany) is the current Prime Minister of Slovakia (since July 4, 2006).

His relatively new left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy (Slovak: "SMER – Sociálna demokracia") was the winner of the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the votes.

Life

A lawyer, Fico acquired his legal education in the communist Czechoslovakia. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the Comenius University at Bratislava and later worked for the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1987.

After the Velvet Revolution, following the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), which was a modern successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia. As a political appointee Fico also represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights.

In 1999, Fico founded a new party called Smer - tretia cesta (Direction - the Third Way). Although at first presented as a centrist party, the Fico's new party project soon shifted towards a more leftist rhetoric, the part of the political spectrum having been left vacant after the disintegration of Fico's previous party, the SDL.

Fico soon became one of the most popular politicians in Slovakia. His rhetoric was most often aimed at the ongoing reforms being carried out at the time by the right wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda. The reform's negative impacts increased the appeal and popularity of Fico's rhetoric.

In the parliamentary elections of 2002, Fico's SMER received 13.46% of the votes and became the third largest party. The result was much lower than the pre-election estimates and Fico openly called it a failure. Nevertheless SMER became the largest opposition party.

Election victory

In the following elections in 2006 SMER won with 29.1% of the votes and formed a coalition government with Vladimír Mečiar's HZDS and Ján Slota's SNS.

Both Mečiar and Slota were a part of the government coalition between the years of 1994 to 1998 during which Slovakia's EU and NATO negotiations were stopped due to alleged insufficiences in various spheres of the government and unclear privatization transactions (alleged asset stripping). At that time, Fico, as a member of the opposition, was one of Mečiar's and Slota's critics.

As a result of Fico's decision to form government with the Slovak National Party, considered to be too nationalist by some, the Party of European Socialists, of which SMER was a member, decided in 2006 to suspend Fico's party membership.

Fico's Anti-Reform Approach

Upon taking the office, Fico declared an all-out war to all reforms carried out or started by the previous government, he has not changed much (yet) however as of mid-2007. Any attempts to change the government spending are limited by the fact that - by c. 2008 - the country has to fulfill the very strict Maastricht criteria to be able to adopt the euro as its new currency. The new government has slightly modified the radical flat tax system introduced by the previous government in that a special, lower VAT was imposed on medications (the same is supposed to apply for books since 2008), and that the structure of lump-sum deductions for the income tax was changed. In the social and health care system, the previous government left the new Fico government with considerable (current and hidden future) debts and deficits, which now must be solved. As a result, intense discussions about modifications in the pension reform take place, the first main planned change as of mid-2007 being the removal of the current upper limit for the obligatory pension system contributions (which is a system used in the neighbouring Czech Republic for example). Fico himself also repeatedly criticizes the fact that - as he would put it - both private health insurance companies and private pension funds make unreasonable profits from obligatory pension deductions. In the health care, fees that people had to pay when visiting any doctor or hospital, introduced by the previous government, were abolished again and it has been proposed to replace the current system of multiple health insurance companies, seen by many as a waste of operating and administrative costs, by a system of a single (publicly owned) health insurance company, like in some other countries. The associated problems with the "renationalisation" of the existing private insurance companies, however, basically brought the idea to a halt in mid-2007.

The opposition parties accuse Fico of "populism" and lack of competence. Seeing - in his view - major media in Slovakia as being "controlled" by groups linked to his opposition, Fico's communication with the media is sometimes arrogant and evasive. In foreign policy, Fico does not have many allies in the western world given that he has formed a coalition with the Slovak National Party. Social democratic parties in the Czech Republic and Austria are notable exceptions. Also, Fico criticizes the US attitude in the issue of independence of Kosovo, he is an opponent of the planned construction of new US military bases in the neighbouring Czech Republic and Poland (also criticized by Russia) and one of the first steps upon taking the office was a military pullout from Iraq, which had been part of his election campaign. His foreign trips in the first year included visits to China and Libya, for which he has been criticized both by his political opponents and the EU.

References

External links

• Short biography on government website
• AntiFico
• Dr.Robert Fico

Preceded by Mikuláš Dzurinda	Prime Minister of Slovakia 2006 - current	Succeeded by Incumbent

•  • [ e] Prime Ministers of Slovakia

Provisional Government for Slovakia (as part of Czechoslovakia): Vavro Šrobr (1918) Slovak Soviet Republic: Antonn Janoušek (1919) Autonomous Slovakia (as part of Czechoslovakia): Jozef Tiso (1938 – 1939) | Jozef Sivk (1939) | Karol Sidor (1939) First Slovak Republic: Jozef Tiso (1939) | Vojtech Tuka (1939 – 1944) | Štefan Tiso (1944 – 1945) Presidents of the Board of Commissioners (as part of Czechoslovakia): Karol Šmidke (1945 – 1946) | Gustv Husk (1946 – 1950) | Karol Baclek (1950 – 1951) | Jlius Ďuriš (1951 – 1953) | Rudolf Strechaj (1953 – 1960) Slovak Socialist Republic / Slovak Republic (as part of Czechoslovakia): Štefan Sdovsk (1969) | Peter Colotka (1969-1988) | Ivan Knotek (1988-1989) | Pavel Hrivnk (1989) | Milan Čič (1989-1990) | Vladimr Mečiar (1990-1991) | Jn Čarnogursk (1991-1992) | Vladimr Mečiar (1992) Slovak Republic: Vladimr Mečiar (1993-1994) | Jozef Moravčk (1994) | Vladimr Mečiar (1994-1998) | Mikulš Dzurinda (1998-2006) | Robert Fico (2006-)

•  • [ e] European Council

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