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The Czech government can come to Slovakia at any time and will be welcomed in the country, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said at his press conference on Thursday. The head of the Smér party once again commented on the deterioration of relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Petr Fiala’s cabinet announced on Wednesday that it was suspending joint intergovernmental consultations with the Slovak government. The reason is a different attitude towards the conflict in Ukraine, which is facing Russian aggression.
Fico said on Thursday that he refused for anyone to threaten the “fantastic relations” between Czechs and Slovaks for purely political reasons. Already on Wednesday evening, he claimed that the Czech government group decided to threaten them only because it is interested in supporting the war in Ukraine.
Czech-Slovak rift
“I hope we will not endanger the relations between Slovaks and Czechs because of vanity or because of some goals that have nothing to do with Czech-Slovak coexistence,” Fica was quoted as saying by ČTK.
The prime minister also repeated that sending weapons to Ukraine is “killing Slavs”.
According to him, the Czech government can come to Slovakia at any time and will be welcomed in the country. “She will not be welcomed in Slovakia by screaming activists with ridiculous banners and trumpets, but by people with flowers,” he said, referring to the V4 summit held in Prague last week, according to ČTK. At that time, a group of opponents protested against Fico and Viktor Orbán.
Lipavský about an inappropriate atmosphere
The state of Czech-Slovak relations was also commented on Thursday by the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jan Lipavský from Pirátů. In the chat for the server Aktuality.sk among other things, he said that Fico’s statements in particular threaten mutual relations.
“Even the subsequent comment in which he accused the Czech government of supporting the war in Ukraine is a complete reversal of reality,” said the Czech minister. According to him, the atmosphere is not suitable for a meeting of governments.
V4 in Prague
Lipavský also said that the Czech Republic does not support appeasement, i.e. the policy of concessions towards the aggressor.
“When some of our Czech politicians tried to talk to both the West and the East, they mostly ended up only in the East and made useful idiots out of them. I think the example of our former president Miloš Zeman is proof of that,” says the head of Czech diplomacy in an interview.
He added that the Czech Republic had run out of patience with Slovak pro-Russian rhetoric. “The cup gradually filled until it overflowed,” says Lipavský. Specifically, he mentioned Fico’s statements about the summit in Paris and the meeting of the Slovak foreign minister with Sergey Lavrov.
Slovak turn
After his return to power last October, Robert Fico stopped military aid to the defending Kiev from state stocks. Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Turkey last weekend.
Fico also announced that the event planned for Thursday at the Dutch embassy in Prague on the political situation in Slovakia was cancelled.
Because of her, on Wednesday the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassador of the Netherlands in Bratislava and expressed reservations about the event, which was organized by the non-governmental organization Center for an Informed Society.
She said on Wednesday that the embassy only provided premises for the event. According to the Slovak Denník N, the meeting will eventually take place at a different location.