Yet the former prime minister spearheads a new brand of Left-wing, anti-American populism that has become a powerful force in Central Europe since the war began. Perceptions that “the Americans occupy us” — as one MP in Fico’s Smer party evocatively put it — are shared with a similar groundswell of anti-Western opinion in the neighbouring Czech Republic.  

Yet Smer has been handed a chance to gain power thanks to the chaos which has engulfed Slovakia’s pro-EU, pro-Western forces. Personal grievances coupled with serious policy errors tore apart a four-party coalition formed after elections in 2020, leaving Fico to capitalise on heightened mistrust in establishment politics. Smer is expected to become the nation’s largest party after this month’s election, with an anticipated 20% of the vote.  

Whatever the specific makeup of the new government, if Smer is the largest party it will likely pursue a foreign policy similar to that of Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary. A halt to until-now generous Slovak arms shipments to Ukraine is Fico’s central electoral pledge, while the arrival on the scene of another Orbán-style government prepared to obstruct EU aid efforts for Ukraine would create a serious headache. That is particularly the case as Brussels struggles to win support for both short and long-term war funding commitments. 

Victory for Fico would also amplify Orbán’s scepticism about the overall Western narrative on Ukraine — a scepticism which the Hungarian Prime Minister recently conveyed to Western conservatives during an interview with Tucker Carlson. Orbán portrayed Ukraine’s attempts to win back the territories taken by Russia as ultimately hopeless and claimed that Donald Trump’s promise to end the war quickly makes him “the man who can save the Western world”. 

Like Trump in America and Orbán in Europe, Fico is hated with a passion by establishment forces. But in Slovakia, the pro-Western establishment itself has become so mistrusted that power may soon pass to a man intent on shattering what’s left of European unity on Ukraine. 

The Disinfo Cloud, a product of the State Department, also funds the Global Disinformation Index, a ratings agency that blocks advertising revenue from disfavoured media websites, including UnHerd, by warning prospective advertisers that certain outlets are bad for “brand safety”. In UnHerd’s case, publishing the articles of gender-critical feminists such as Kathleen Stock was the motivating factor behind the GDI blacklisting, which has resulted in a dramatic loss of advertising revenue.

Though the GEC is barred from using its funds for anything besides “countering foreign propaganda and misinformation that threatens United States Security”, it has in fact funded Park Capital Investment Group, which in turn launched Disinfo Cloud, whose fact-checking and media literacy tools were used not merely against foreign propaganda, but against American speech, the lawsuit argues.

“You’re seeing the targeting of conservatives, but you’re also seeing the targeting of individuals who are saying something contrary to what the government wants the public to think and believe,” Margot Cleveland of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, the group representing the Daily Wire and the Federalist, told UnHerd, listing speech restrictions on Covid-19, vaccines, the lab leak theory and election integrity. “Everyone should be concerned about limitations on freedom of speech.”