European Socialists suspend membership of Slovak parties Smer and Hlas

The Presidium of the Party of European Socialists (PES) decided to suspend the membership of the Slovak parties Smer-SD of former Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hlas (Voice) of Peter Pellegrini, which will lead the future government coalition in Slovakia.

This is stated in the PES message. The European Socialists decided to exclude the parties due to “discussions that took place in the praesidium in the spring.”

“This step has been taken following the clear divergence from the values of the PES family demonstrated by Smer-SD leader Robert Fico. And additionally, as a result of concerns raised following the announcement of a government coalition between Smer-SD, Hlas-SD and a radical-right party,” the statement said.

The Party of European Socialists consists of national-level political parties from all EU member states and from outside the EU. Its political group in the European Parliament is the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

Robert Fico, who promised to stop military support for Ukraine, previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Voice party and the pro-Russian far-right Slovak National Party of Andrej Danko.

On October 11, a coalition memorandum was signed between Smer-SD, which won the election with 42 seats, Voice, which came in third with 27 seats, and the SNP, which has 10 seats in the new parliament following the September 30 election.

Aware of the pro-Russian and anti-European narratives of the Smer-SD party, first in the election, and potential bigger coalition partner, Pellegrini has tried to assure the supporters that Hlas will maintain pro-European policy.

The problematic element of these talks is that SNS is an ultranationalist political party, far-right, while Hlas has been positioning itself as a centre-left and social-democratic party. In any other EU state, such an alliance would be surrealistic, and European Socialists found this move unacceptable.

Fico campaigned on pro-Russian and anti-American slogans. He promised to end Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine. Fico said he wanted Slovakia to remain a member of the EU and NATO but with “full respect” for his country’s sovereignty.