The outcome is a notable brain drain of Slovaks, who are increasingly choosing to leave the country.
When Slovakia joined the European Union in May 2004, the notion of becoming part of the Western bloc was widely supported by voters.
Unlike its neighbour, Czechia, Slovakia went so far as to adopt the euro in January 2009.
Brussels symbolised economic prosperity and EU integration. But, after two decades, the government now views it as Slovakia’s greatest enemy.
Robert Fico, who led two governments between 2006 and 2018, returned to power in October 2023.
The prime minister leads Smer, a onetime leftist, now right-wing populist party he founded in 1999, which has won four elections and led three governments since.
Fico’s policies are based on a mix of Euroscepticism and the targeting of independent media and the judiciary, LGBTQI and Muslims (read migrants).
On 15 May, he survived an assassination attempt by a former supporter, a far-right poet and novelist with anti-Roma and pro-Russian views.
Subsequently, Fico became even more outspoken in his anti-EU rhetoric, accusing “the progressives”, as he calls liberals, of fostering a culture of hate.
Ironically, Fico emulates his Hungarian peer Viktor Orbán, despite territorial tensions between Bratislava and Budapest.
Slovakia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1918, has a significant Hungarian population (estimated at 8%) that has been the focus of Orbán’s nationalist policies aimed at rekindling the idea of a “greater Hungary”.
Offering citizenship and voting rights to ethnic Hungarians in Central Europe, Orbán’s efforts have been well-received, particularly in Slovakia, where ethnic Hungarians feel discriminated against by the government.
Looking East Again
Until 1989, Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia, had to look east as Moscow enforced its economic and political control over Central Europe.
EU accession symbolised a political shift best represented by Zuzana Čaputová’s presidency, Slovakia’s first female head of state from 2019 to 2024.
A divorced lawyer with a background in environmental activism and a mother of two, the former Open Society Foundations employee is the ideological opposite of Fico.
During Čaputová’s mandate, she pushed for closer ties with Brussels and offered full support to Kyiv and Ukrainian refugees.
One of the most memorable moments of Čaputová’s tenure occurred in March 2023, when Slovakia donated its entire fleet of Russian-made MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine.
Today, Slovakia’s foreign policy has undergone a radical shift.
The Fico government has halted aid to Ukraine and regularly calls for the lifting of sanctions against Russia, voting against new EU aid packages for Kyiv.
Resisting calls to reduce its energy dependency on Moscow by Brussels, Fico has called such moves “a dangerous game” and “economic suicide”.
In August, Bratislava resumed issuing visas to Russian tourists after suspending them in 2022, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
The move comes as the European Commission is considering restricting visas as part of its 19th package of sanctions against Moscow.
Fico’s pivot eastwards is similarly reflected in his China policy.
Travelling to Beijing in August, he was the only EU member state leader to participate in ceremonies marking the end of World War II.
Fico’s presence was as much realpolitik as it was ideological. Slovakia has the third-highest trade reliance on Beijing within the European Union.
China has invested heavily in Slovakia’s electric vehicle industry, particularly in the battery sector, as it has also done in neighbouring Hungary.
Unsurprisingly, Fico has little to say about Chinese policies, such as its 380 Muslim internment camps in Xinjiang and its threats to take over Taiwan.
Brain Drain
While many Western Europeans view Bratislava as a vibrant city with a low cost of living and numerous job opportunities, the experience is quite different for many Slovaks, particularly those outside the main cities.
The average monthly salary in Slovakia generally ranges from 1,500 to 1,600 euros. Youth unemployment exceeds 15%, which explains why many young people seek employment abroad.
In less than two decades, the number of young Slovaks studying domestically has almost halved, while 17% of all Slovak students today study overseas.
In this context, Czechia serves as a natural destination due to its linguistic and physical proximity.
Slovaks now constitute the second-largest group of foreigners, numbering around 120,000, in a country where the average monthly salary exceeds 2,000 euros.
Prague, in particular, is in high demand for its labour force and offers attractive positions to young Slovak graduates and professionals alike.
Other leading countries for Slovak migration include the United Kingdom, Austria and Germany.
However, economic opportunities are not the sole motivation for migration.
Growing conservatism and right-wing populism are frequently cited as the main reasons why young people consider leaving Slovakia.
Several tragic events and current government policies further elucidate why some go so far as to describe the situation in the country as fascist.
In February 2018, investigative journalist Ján Kuciák and his partner were shot dead in their home as Kuciák was investigating a major tax fraud case.
In March, the then-government, led by Fico, had to resign, following massive protests. But to this day, there is little clarity on who ordered the killing.
The case will be retried, following a decision of the Slovak Supreme Court in May.
On 12 October 2022, a 19-year-old right-wing extremist fatally shot two individuals outside the LGBTQ bar Tepláreň in central Bratislava.
The incident triggered widespread protests, exposing a significant societal divide and a prevailing sense of fear among liberals.
Even more indicative of this shift towards authoritarianism are the actions of the current Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová.
A former TV anchor who was fired in 2015 for publishing racist posts about Syrian refugees on Facebook, she became a media icon of the far-right.
In October 2023, Šimkovičová was appointed by Fico to oversee the “cleaning up” of culture and media deemed anti-Slovak, removing liberals, leftists, supporters of minorities, and those who back Ukraine.
Šimkovičová has since purged key figures, instilling a climate of fear.
In May, the government also enacted a law requiring non-governmental organisations to disclose their funding sources and contributors, threatening violators with fines.
Presented by Fico as an effort to enhance transparency in NGOs, critics argued the legislation was anti-democratic.
“We call it a Russian law not because it is a copy of the Russian one but it was inspired by Russia and in variety with the constitution and EU law,” a prominent activist told Deutsche Welle.
Another activist, affiliated with Slovakia’s Peace for Ukraine group, told Politico the legislation is “a tool to systemically dismantle civil society”.
Although the bill was eventually amended under pressure from the European Commission, it was passed on 16 April.
Mass protests in Bratislava, including one on the 3rd, where an estimated 9,000 demonstrators marched, failed to prevent its approval.
Robert Fico might feel even more vindicated in October when parliamentary elections in Czechia are expected to return Andrej Babiš to office.
An ethnic Slovak and former prime minister, Babiš is well known for his right-wing populism and pro-Putin politics.
Dubbed the “Czech Donald Trump”, the billionaire media mogul denied the existence of a concentration camp for Roma in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, calling it a “labour compound”.
But, little, it seems, appears to dampen Central Europe’s appetite for leaders like Babiš, who is facing a retrial over a €2 million EU subsidy fraud.
If Fico can get himself continually reelected, anyone can.
Photograph courtesy of Gage Skidmore. Published under a Creative Commons license.
