Robert Fico

Robert Fico (born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician currently serving as the Prime Minister of Slovakia since 2023, having served previously from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018.

Fico was born on 15 September 1964, in the town of Topoľčany in the southwestern Nitra Region.

His father, Ľudovit Fico, was a forklift operator, and his mother, Emilie Ficová, worked in a shoe store.

He has two siblings; his brother Ladislav is a construction entrepreneur, and his sister Lucia Chabadová, who is fourteen years younger, is a prosecutor.

Fico grew up and lived with his family in the village of Hrušovany, until the age of six, when they moved to the nearby town of Topoľčany.

Fico has described his childhood ambitions as wanting to become either a politician, a sports reporter, or an archeologist.

After completing elementary school, he enrolled in the local Gymnasium of Topoľčany, graduating in the summer of 1982.

Later the same year he enrolled in the Law Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava, in what was then Czechoslovakia.

His teachers were impressed with him, and one of his teachers from university, the future prime minister Jozef Moravčík, described him as "ambitious, very confident and very involved in discussions."

He graduated as juris doctor in 1986 specializing in criminal law.

After graduating from university, Fico completed his mandatory military service as an assistant military investigator, stationed in the (now-Czech) town of Janovice between 1986 and 1987.

Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1986, having applied in 1984.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ), a successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia.

During this period he wrote and completed his PhD degree, with a thesis on "The death penalty in Czechoslovakia" and, in the early 1990s, undertook studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London under a Masaryk scholarship.

First elected to Parliament in 1992 (whilst within Czechoslovakia), he was later appointed to the Council of Europe.

He later worked for the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as with the Justice Ministry until 1992.

He was first elected as Member of Parliament in 1992.

From 1994 to 2000 Fico represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights but lost all 14 cases which he handled.

In 1998 he was elected deputy chairman of the party.

Later the same year, Fico ran for the post of general prosecutor, but his party endorsed another candidate instead, arguing Fico was too young.

In the 1998 elections that saw the fall of the government of Vladimír Mečiar, Fico received the biggest number of preferential votes among his party colleagues.

A year later, when support for the SDĽ dropped below the threshold required to get into parliament, he left the party, saying he was disappointed with the way the government worked.

As early as in the autumn of 1998, a four-person group consisting of Fico, his associate Frantisek Határ, political strategist Fedor Flašík, and media executive Monika Flašíková-Beňová had begun to discuss and lay plans for launching a new political party on the left.

These plans were driven by the falling popularity of the existing parties, and the rising popularity of Fico.

Almost immediately after leaving SDĽ, the group founded Direction – Social Democracy (SMER), which Fico first labelled a party of the third way, with himself as leader.

Fico established himself as an opposition politician criticizing the unpopular reforms of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda.

In order to keep SMER from repeating the fate of his previous party, Fico introduced a strict set of regulations for his new party, called the "clean hands" policy.

He founded the Direction – Social Democracy (Smer) party in 1999 and has led the party since its foundation.

Fico holds a record as the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for a total of over 10 years.

In 2002 he completed his postgraduate study, earning him the title of associate professor.

Fico acted as an independent MP until the 2002 elections.

Following his party's victory in the 2006 parliamentary election, he formed the first Fico Cabinet.

After the 2010 parliamentary election, Fico served as an opposition member of parliament, effectively holding the position of the leader of the opposition.

Following a motion of no confidence against the Iveta Radičová cabinet, Fico was re-appointed as prime minister after leading Smer to a landslide election victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, winning 83 seats and forming a government with an absolute majority in Parliament, the first such since 1989.

In 2013, Fico officially declared his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election.

Fico lost the election to his political rival Andrej Kiska in the second round of voting on 29 March 2014.

On 15 March 2018, in the wake of the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak, Fico delivered his resignation to President Andrej Kiska, who then formally charged Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with the formation of a new government.

During the 2023 parliamentary election, Fico ran on a campaign to cease military support to Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War and expressed interest in beginning peace talks.

His party Direction – Social Democracy (Smer), won the most votes in the election, with 22.95% of the vote and winning 42 seats.

Fico formed a coalition with Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas) and the Slovak National Party, and began his fourth term as prime minister on 25 October.