Government of Robert Fico I

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The Robert Fico government was the government of Slovakia from July 4, 2006 to July 8, 2010 under Prime Minister Robert Fico . It consisted of a three-party coalition of the parties Smer-SD , ĽS-HZDS and SNS .

General

In June 2006, early elections were held in Slovakia . They became necessary after Mikuláš Dzurinda's ruling coalition had lost the parliamentary majority, as the ANO (Alliance of the New Citizen) and KDH (Christian Democratic Movement) parties left it. The KDH left the coalition at the beginning of February 2006 because Dzurinda rejected its request that Slovakia would conclude an international treaty with the Vatican on a (Catholic) “reservation of conscience” for citizens of Slovakia.

The elections ended with a victory for the previous opposition politician Robert Fico and his party Smer-SD (Direction - Social Democracy). Mikuláš Dzurinda's party, the SDKÚ , became the second largest faction, but was no longer able to form a coalition capable of governing. A week after the election, Fico signed a coalition agreement with the parties ĽS-HZDS under expremier Vladimír Mečiar and SNS (Slovak National Party) under Ján Slota .

Coalition parties

Political party Alignment Share of the vote MPs Ministries Party leader
SMER - socialna demokracia Logo.svg Smer - sociálna demokracia (Smer-SD)
direction - social democracy 		Left-wing populists ,
social democrats 		29.1%
50/150
 11 photo
Robert Fico
Slovenská národná strana (SNS)
Slovak National Party 		Nationalists ,
national conservatives 		11.7%
20/150
 3 photo
Jan Slota
HZDS Logo.svg Ľudová strana - Hnutie za democické Slovensko (ĽS-HZDS)
People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia 		Populists , left-
wing nationalists 		8.8%
15/150
 2 photo
Vladimír Mečiar

Government cabinet

Portfolio minister Political party
Prime Minister Robert Fico   Smer-SD
Vice Prime Minister, Knowledge Society, European Affairs, Human Rights and Minorities Dušan Čaplovič   Smer-SD
Vice Prime Minister, Home Office Robert Kaliňák   Smer-SD
Ministry of Finance Ján Počiatek   Smer-SD
Foreign Ministry Ján Kubiš   Smer-SD
Miroslav Lajčák   non-party (proposal Smer-SD )
Ministry of Economy Ľubomír Jahnátek   Smer-SD
Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications Ľubomír Vážny   Smer-SD
Ministry of Health Ivan Valentovič   Smer-SD
Richard Raši   Smer-SD
Ministry of Defense František Kašický   Smer-SD
Jaroslav Baška   Smer-SD
Ministry of Culture Marek Maďarič   Smer-SD
Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family Viera Tomanová   Smer-SD
Vice Prime Minister, Education Ján Mikolaj   SNS
Ministry of Construction and Regional Development (dissolved on July 1, 2010) Igor Štefanov   SNS
Ján Mikolaj   SNS
Ministry of the Environment Viliam Turský   SNS
Ján Chrbet   SNS
Jaroslav Izák   SNS
Jozef Medveď   non-party (proposal Smer-SD )
Vice Prime Minister, Ministry of Justice Štefan Harabin   independent (proposal ĽS-HZDS )
Viera Petríková   ĽS-HZDS
Ministry of Agriculture Stanislav Becík   ĽS-HZDS

Politics of Slovakia under the Fico government

The Fico government has paid out a special "Christmas pension" to retirees, has cut sales tax on medicines and books from 19% to 10%, abolished doctor fees introduced by the Dzurinda government, reduced prescription fees and the planned privatization of some Suspended hospitals, made adjustments to the pension reform carried out by the Dzurinda government (to prevent a high deficit in social benefits looming), made adjustments to the labor code to increase worker protection, accelerated the construction of the highway from Bratislava to Košice , and raised salaries for the Doctors and teachers (who have been underpaid for years) are waiting. These measures are financed on the one hand by the currently strong GDP growth (2007: 10.4%) and on the other hand by austerity measures in the public sector.

In terms of foreign policy, Slovakia leaned more towards Russia and strengthened relations with various non-EU countries such as Serbia, Libya and China. For example, Slovakia had Russian MiG fighters modernized instead of buying new fighters in the west. Fico also condemned Georgia in 2008 for aggression against South Ossetia . Fico is extremely critical of building a US anti-missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic (as is Russia ).

On December 21, 2007, border controls ceased to exist after Slovakia joined the Schengen Agreement .

In the area of press freedom , Slovakia took 3rd place in the 2007 Press Freedom Index , which is compiled by the organization Reporters Without Borders , in a world ranking of 169 countries (together with Estonia ; after Norway and Iceland ). In 2009 it was ranked 44th, along with Spain and Cape Verde . In the economic area, however, economic growth exceeded all expectations in 2007 and 2008, reaching 10.4% in 2007 (14.3% in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the same quarter of the previous year).

The euro was introduced on January 1, 2009. Despite the global financial crisis, the government is initially expecting economic growth of 4.7% for 2009 (as of December 2008), which would be the highest economic growth in the EU.

In the presidential elections on March 21, 2009, Ivan Gašparovič qualified with 46.27% of the vote and Iveta Radičová with 37.70% for the second round of voting. In the runoff election on April 4, 2009, Gašparovič won 55.53% of the vote and is expected to remain in office until 2014.

In the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2010 , the previous coalition lost its parliamentary majority; the bourgeois opposition won more seats. Since Prime Minister Fico could not form a new government, the government resigned on July 8, 2010, when Iveta Radičová was appointed as the new Prime Minister.

Web links

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  1. ^ RIA-Novosti: Russia-Slovakia foreign trade turnover on record course. November 16, 2009.
  2. ↑ RIA-Novosti: Russia gives Slovakia a modernized MiG-29 according to NATO standards. February 29, 2008.
  3. ↑ hnonline.sk: Slovak Prime Minister Knows Who Provoked this War in the Caucasus. ( Memento of October 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) August 13, 2008.
  4. ↑ US missile defense in Europe angers Russia , CBC. March 5, 2007. 
  5. ↑ 24hodín news portal: Predbežné výsledky prezidentských volieb 2009 on-line - interatívna mapa. March 22, 2009.
  6. ^ AFP : Gasparovic re-elected as Slovak President. at google.com, April 5, 2009.
  7. ^ Prezident prijal demisiu R. Fica, za premiérku vymenoval Radičovú , Pravda, accessed July 8, 2010.

See also