Slovakia’s Fico to miss out on October EU summit if he sticks with a climate denier

President Zuzana Čaputová refused Robert Fico’s nominee for the position of environment minister, meaning he will have to come up with an alternative if he wants to meet his goal of attending the European Council Summit on 26-27 October.

The Slovak National Party insists on nominating Rudolf Huliak, even though the president said that “a candidate who has long denied the scientific consensus on climate change and says there is no real climate crisis” cannot run the Environment Ministry.

Given the informal nature of the talks between Čaputová and Fico, the constitution does not oblige her to accept Rudolf Huliak’s nomination, says Kamil Baraník, a constitutional law expert at Matej Bel University. If Fico wants to be appointed prime minister, he must submit to the president a proposal of government members that she will accept, she added.

“If he wants to meet this deadline, he needs to cooperate,” says Baraník to Euractiv Slovakia.

Čaputová said she had no problem with any of the other nominations, cementing the nationalists’ choice for culture minister, Martina Šimkovičová, even though she works for a media outlet that spreads misinformation.

While Fico did not publish Smer’s choice of candidates, Denník N and Aktuality reported that the foreign minister would be Juraj Blanár.

Fico said he sought an “unconventional” candidate to shake up the ministry. Blanár is Smer’s vice-chairman and chaired the parliamentary foreign affairs committee for a few months in 2020.

On foreign policy, describing the war in Ukraine as a conflict between ‘the US and Russia’ and saying that EU sanctions against Russia must be “re-evaluated”.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)