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Raymond J. de Souza: How Slovakia's left has come to resemble the MAGA right

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico favours leftist economics, reduced immigration, social conservatism and Putin. Sound familiar?

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, first took office 20 years ago this summer. He has been in and out of office since, his current (and fourth) mandate beginning in 2023. Slovakia is a small country (5.5 million people), but its prime minister is part of some bigger trends. Fico is a man of the left; his party, Direction — Social Democracy, is part of the wider array of European social democratic parties. Yet his version is not what you might expect.

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Fico supports larger social welfare payments and bigger government, but is strongly anti-immigration (especially in regard to Muslims and Roma) and takes strong socially conservative positions on homosexuality and gender. After Viktor Orbán’s defeat in neighbouring Hungary, Fico is Russia’s closest ally in the European Union.

Raymond J. de Souza: How Slovakia's left has come to resemble the MAGA right Back to........

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