Robert Fico

Date of Birth: September 15, 1964

Robert Fico - Slovak politician and Prime Minister of Slovakia.

Place of Birth. Education. Born on September 15, 1964, in Topoľčany. He grew up with his family in the town of Hrušovany until the age of six, then moved to the neighboring town of Topoľčany. After completing primary school, he attended the local high school in Topoľčany and graduated in the summer of 1982.

From 1982 to 1986, he studied at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava and subsequently completed a Ph.D. program (similar to a doctorate) in criminal law at the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1988-1992). He received his Ph.D. degree by defending his dissertation on the death penalty in Czechoslovakia.

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Career. From 1986 to 1987, after completing his studies, he served his mandatory military service as an assistant military lawyer in Janovice (now in the Czech Republic). Later, he worked at the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Justice until 1992.

Political Career. Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1987 and submitted his application in 1984. After the 'Velvet Revolution' in 1989 and the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ), the successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia.

In 1992, he was elected to Parliament. From 1994 to 2000, Fico represented Slovakia as a legal advisor at the European Court of Human Rights but lost all 14 cases he represented. In 1998, he was elected deputy chairman of his party. Later that year, Fico ran for the position of Attorney General, but his party approved another candidate, stating Fico was too young.

In the 1998 elections, Fico received the most votes among his party colleagues. A year later, as support for the SDĽ fell below the threshold required to enter Parliament, he left the party, stating that he was disappointed with the government's work. Fico served as an independent deputy until the 2002 elections.

After the victory of his left-leaning party 'Direction - Social Democracy,' which he founded in 1999, in the parliamentary elections on June 17, 2006, he formed a government coalition and replaced then-Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.

On July 7, 2010, he resigned after the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2010. Previously, Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič tasked Fico with attempting to form his second government, but he failed to do so. The next day, a new government was formed under the leadership of Iveta Radičová.

On April 4, 2012, shortly after his party's 'Direction - Social Democracy' victory in early parliamentary elections (the party received 83 seats in the 150-member parliament), Fico was tasked with forming a new government for the country. This was the first one-party government in the country since independence.

On December 18, 2013, Fico officially announced his candidacy for the upcoming 2014 presidential elections. However, in the second round on March 29, 2014, Fico was defeated by independent candidate Andrej Kiska by a significant margin (about 59% - 41%).

In March 2018, he resigned after journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée were murdered. The journalist was investigating tax fraud and connections between the Slovak political elite and the Italian criminal group ’Ndrangheta. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the murder in Slovak cities.

In the 2023 parliamentary elections, Fico's party 'Direction - Social Democracy' won the most votes and received 42 seats. Fico promised to completely halt military support for Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war and begin peace negotiations.

On October 25, 2023, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová appointed Robert Fico as the new Prime Minister of the country.

Family. He met his wife Svetlana, a lawyer and university lecturer (professor), during his studies in Bratislava. They married in 1988. They have a son, Michal. Fico speaks fluent Slovak, Czech, English, and Russian.

October 25, 2023