Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has vowed to problem the consensus in Brussels
The EU’s backing of Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, and “fanatic” environmental insurance policies are “harmful for Europe,” but Brussels doesn’t tolerate dialogue of those points, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico mentioned on Saturday.
“If we will’t inform the reality on the Brussels desk that, for instance, anti-Russian sanctions didn’t work, that additional destruction of Ukraine and killing Ukrainians goes nowhere, that the fanatic implementation of the Inexperienced Deal is killing our economies, that 20 thousand casualties within the Gaza Strip can’t be neglected simply because Israel causes them, we’re on a slippery slope that may be not solely politically, but in addition economically harmful for Europe,” Fico wrote in a publish on Fb.
The Slovak PM has minimize off his personal nation’s navy assist to Kiev and vowed to dam Brussels’ subsequent sanctions bundle if it contains an embargo on Russian nuclear gasoline. Whereas Fico didn’t veto the European Council’s choice on Thursday to open accession talks with Ukraine, he has dismissed the vote as “a political choice that has nothing to do with actuality,” and asserted that Kiev “is completely unprepared to open the negotiations.”
Fico’s place on Ukraine’s membership bid is at odds with that of most EU leaders, who hailed Thursday’s choice as “a breakthrough” and “a transparent sign of assist” for Kiev, within the phrases of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Other than Fico, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been the EU’s staunchest critic of the bloc’s sanctions coverage and its push to confess Ukraine. Orban has referred to Ukraine as “one of the crucial corrupt international locations on this planet,” and referred to as the bloc’s leaders “mindless and irrational” for opening membership talks with a rustic concerned in an lively battle, with an financial system totally depending on international assist to perform.
Earlier than the battle in Ukraine started, Orban recurrently clashed with the EU over his hardline immigration insurance policies. Earlier this 12 months he accused Brussels of “raping” Hungary and Poland by introducing laws that he mentioned would “relocate migrants to Hungary by drive.”
“I respect each politician who can sovereignly get up for the pursuits of his personal nation, as a result of in the present day in Europe dialogue is extra of an exception than a rule,” Fico wrote on Fb. “And Viktor Orban is the exception.”
The Slovak chief mentioned that he would take an analogous method when negotiating with the bloc’s officers, and wouldn’t search to “acquire private reward from the West.”
Fico’s place on the combating in Ukraine was a key issue behind his get together’s suspension from its European parliamentary faction, the Social gathering of European Socialists, in October. Responding to the suspension, Fico declared that “if our exclusion from the worldwide get together is to be a worth for pursuing a real left-wing agenda in Slovakia and voicing sovereign opinions, we’re ready to pay such a worth.”
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