At a press conference this week, Fico lashed out at the press, calling journalists "blood-thirsty bastards," singling out independent outlets such as Dennik N, Dennik Sme, and Aktuality.sk as the worst offenders.
The prime minister lost his composure after journalists asked him about tensions in his ruling coalition. The question followed public criticism of the government by President Peter Pellegrini over the previous weekend. Pellegrini's party, Hlas, is currently in a coalition with Fico's Smer, where it plays the role of a kingmaker in the fragmented political landscape that characterizes Slovak politics.
Fico, who heads the government for a fourth time, dislikes the media for both ideological and personal reasons. His party, Smer, represents a regional brand of populism comparable to Viktor Orbán's Fidesz, and the two prime ministers have excellent relations, despite the fact that Fico's coalition partner, the far-right Slovak National Party, grew on anti-Hungarian rhetoric.
In 2018, during Fico's third stint as prime minister, he was forced to resign when the investigation into the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová revealed that the mobsters who murdered the couple had links with the Smer-run government.
Fico's ousting happened in disgrace following a wave of national protests. He was replaced by Pellegrini, who, together with other moderates, split from Smer at the time, founding their own party, Hlas. In the September 2023 election, Hlas came third following Smer and Progressive Slovakia.
Things got personal for Fico in May 2024, during his current term as head of the Slovak government, when he was shot in the town of Handlová. He survived the shooting and subsequently blamed the media for creating the atmosphere that led to the attempted assassination.
His eagerness to blame the press for his near murder reflects his increasing shift towards radical populism.
While in the past, when governing, Fico was careful to moderate his brand of populism, following last year's election, he returned as a more radical populist with his rhetoric is often anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian. He has also attacked non-governmental organizations as "agents of foreign influence," a view that, following months of government propaganda, 38% of Slovaks now agree with.
Given this it comes as no surprise that he has ramped up his attacks on the media. Following the elections, the public broadcaster RTVS was replaced with Slovak Television and Radio (STaR), which is run by political appointees and has become a tool of pro-government propaganda.
During his heated press conference, Fico also suggested that Slovakia will be setting up a national media authority, which would have the power to remove journalists from their profession. According to the prime minister, journalists would also need to go through a formal requalification process. Slovak opposition members immediately branded these ideas as an attempt at censorship but the fact that Fico has even proposed it indicates that his war on the press is set to continue.
