Pragmatism and support for the EU in Slovakia’s politics

ABSTRACT In 2017, the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, declared that he wanted to steer Slovakia into the core of European integration. Although Fico always supported European integration, he often came across as critical of the EU. This article tests various scenarios of preceding developments and finds the reasons that led to Fico's politicisation of Slovakia's European course. It argues that a large measure of pragmatism, combined with a weak ideological grounding, characterise Slovakia's European policy. As such, European policy is devoid of strong ideological roots or any elaborate long-term strategy, and serves pragmatic needs of the government currently in power.