Slovakia’s populist former prime minister, Robert Fico, who campaigned on a pledge to end military aid to Ukraine, had his SMER-

Slovakia’s populist former prime minister, Robert Fico, who campaigned on a pledge to end military aid to Ukraine, had his SMER-SSD Party winning the most seats in the country’s elections (42 of 150 seats). With no party winning a majority of seats, a coalition gov’t will need to be formed. The liberal, pro-western PS Party finished second with 32 seats. In third is the Hlas Party, a spin-off from SMER-SSD Party in 2018 with 27 seats. The pro western PS Party is aiming to get Hlas to form a coalition with them to prevent Fico and his party from being in gov’t. However, analysts said Slovakia’s new ruling coalition would most likely be formed by Smer, Hlas and the nationalist, Slovak National Party (SNS), which would have a slim but functioning majority of 81 seats. Fico opposes EU sanctions on Russia, questions whether Ukraine can force out the invading Russian troops and wants to block Ukraine from joining NATO. He proposes that instead of sending arms to Kyiv, the EU and the U.S. should use their influence to force Russia and Ukraine to strike a compromise peace deal. Ukraine 🇺🇦 filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Slovakia 🇸🇰 along with Hungary & Poland who are keeping their borders closed to importing Ukrainian grain. Slovakia 🇸🇰, along with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Croatia have managed to remain exempted from the EU embargo on Russian oil coming into their respective countries via the southern branch of the Druzbha pipeline. Video source - Al Jazeera Источник: The Paradigm Shift Channel ⏳