BRATISLAVA: A Slovak populist party that wants to stop military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU and Nato will be tasked with forming a new government after winning elections.

The Smer-SD party led by former prime minister Robert Fico scored 23 per cent in Saturday’s vote, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia at 18pc. “Slovakia and the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than (dealing with) Ukraine,” Fico told reporters on Sunday. He added Ukraine was “a huge tragedy for all” and called for peace talks as “further killing will not help anyone”.

During the campaign, the 59-year-old vowed that Slovakia would not send “a single round of ammunition” to Ukraine and called for better ties with Russia.

President Zuzana Caputova, a former member of Progressive Slovakia and a longtime political rival of Fico, said she would task him with forming a new government.

“In the spirit of our constitutional tradition, tomorrow I will entrust the formation of the government to the winner of the election,” she said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2023