The far-right ĽSNS party, which did not make it to parliament after last year’s parliamentary elections, is the only movement that wants Slovakia to leave the European Union.
“Withdrawal from the EU, withdrawal from NATO, the nationalisation of strategic enterprises,” the party named its priorities in a survey for the TASR news agency back in September.
According to a NMS Market Research Slovakia survey from April, most Slovaks - 60 percent - wish to be part of the EU. The country joined the Union 20 years ago. Slovexit is the least popular among voters of the opposition parties (KDH, PS, SaS and Slovensko).
However, most voters of the major ruling party, Smer, want Slovexi. Forty-seven percent support this idea, while 39 percent are against it. Withdrawal from the EU is also very popular among voters represented by the minor ruling SNS party: 45 percent. Yet, 48 percent of SNS supporters do not want Slovakia to leave the European bloc.
Four-time Prime Minister and Smer leader Robert Fico has repeatedly criticised the EU for supporting Ukraine militarily in Russia’s war in Ukraine, most recently on May 8 when he commemorated 79 years since the end of the Second World War at the Slavín war memorial in Bratislava. Instead, Fico believes the EU should push through a peace solution, failing to stress that Russia refuses to voluntarily withdraw from the territory of Ukraine.
“That has been a great display of the EU’s weakness,” Fico said, as quoted by TASR.
Slovakia keeps supporting the conflict in Ukraine through commercial arms deals. Fico has also warned Brussels against abolishing the right to veto on foreign policy, security and budget issues.
“Otherwise, the EU will have huge problems,” Fico emphasised last week.
EU membership is, nevertheless, irreplaceable for Slovakia, he also said.
Against Ukraine as EU member, split on the United States of Europe
The NMS survey has also shown that only 28 percent of people support Ukraine’s efforts to join the EU. Fico himself has said that Ukraine belongs to the EU, but first has to meet all the criteria. Conversely, the majority of Smer voters - 79 percent - do not agree with Fico and oppose Ukraine’s membership in the EU.
The polling agency also asked Slovak people if they would be open to the idea of the United States of Europe. Twenty-seven percent support this idea, 45 percent are against it, and up to 29 percent do not know how to respond to this question.
The agency surveyed 1,010 respondents through the internet from April 18-21, 2024.
Brussels trusted more than Bratislava
Slovak people continue to trust the EU more than their national governments. But Eurobarometer surveys from the pat 20 years show that this trust has decreased if compared to the 2000s. A peak of Euro-optimism occurred in 2009 and 2010 after the adoption of the euro. At that time, 71 percent of respondents trusted the EU, the most of all member states, notes the Sme daily.
What they like about the EU is the opportunity to move freely around the Union. At the same time, they blame the EU for their living standards. However, Slovakia would have been worse off had it not joined the Union. According to political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov, the bad economic policies of individual governments are to blame for the fact that the country has stopped catching up with the West in recent years.
Thanks to membership, according to the Erste Group model, Slovakia has a 16.2 percent higher GDP per capita than if it had not joined the EU. The potential of the Slovak economy has also increased thanks to money from the EU. From 2004 to 2022, Slovakia received €36.2 billion from the EU budget. On the contrary, Slovakia’s contribution to the Union budget was €11.7 billion.
Even though Slovaks believe in the EU, this fact is not reflected in the turnout of the European elections. The turnout in Slovakia has been the lowest for a long time.
