Slovakia’s Robert Fico vowed he would not allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO as long as he was prime minister, in another blow to Kyiv’s aspirations to join the alliance amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
“I will direct the lawmakers under my control as chairman of the (ruling Smer) party never to agree to Ukraine joining NATO,” he told broadcaster STVR in an interview on Sunday.
I don’t know if Fico is ignorant of history of his own nation or just doesn’t care about the hypocrisy. His argument against Ukraine joining NATO was a similar argument used by the Soviet Union as a justification for invading his own country of Slovakia (at the time part of Czechoslovakia), that being the interactions of the nation in a Third World War.
“On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People’s Republic, the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People’s Republic.”
"The first such fear was that Czechoslovakia would defect from the Eastern Bloc, injuring the Soviet Union’s position in a possible Third World War with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). " source
To your question, he is just a populist. He was promising that we will stop delivering weapons to Ukraine after he wins, but those deliveries did not stop, only thing changed is that Ukraine now needs to pay more for them, because then: “we are not funding war, we are just doing business now” :) it’s hard to be Slovak, because people here are so selfish (big part of us, not all of course) and want war to stop because everything is worse than before and Fico is saying anything to pretend he will do that. Also out country is so damaged by fake news and propaganda, that it is very hard to achieve something wihtout being hated by half of the coutry that thinks that if you dont like what Russia is doing, than you are Amrican agent (really, this happens 🥹).
But yes, it is really funny for me, that my grandmother is on one hand talking about invasion In 1968 as something terrible (naturally) and then with straight face tells me, that Ukraine started the war and we all suffer because of them. It’s really hard, and Fico is making it even worse. Sorry for my rant, I just wanted to speak my heart out 🥹
And btw. you now more about our history that half of our country, which is kinda sad, but understandable, when you realize, that only 30 years ago, this topic was baned. 🫠🫡
Crazy how much leverage the “granny vote” gets you here. It blew my mind when I saw that Fico poster that was just him surrounded by an adoring crowd of grannies.
Also I’d argue us not defending his country was what allowed the second World War in the first place.
Very recently he said “freedom came from the East”. A famous quote of his goes that he didn’t even notice the Velvet Revolution (fall of communism in Czechoslovakia). Not so long ago he went to put flowers on the grave of a head communist party member.
He sure remembers history - but sees it a little differently than you or I