The key facts

  • Fico claims the results of the 2003 referendum on EU accession were falsified
  • According to him, the margin of votes was small, and both the ruling parties and the opposition uniformly supported accession at the time
  • The statement was made against the backdrop of Slovakia's lawsuit against the European Commission over the REPowerEU plan

Statement by the Slovak Prime Minister

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has stated that the results of the 2003 referendum on the country's accession to the European Union were falsified. The address was published on the Facebook page of his party, Direction — Social Democracy, as reported by Gazeta.Ru. 'We held a referendum which, had it not been falsified, would not have been successful,' the outlet quotes Fico as saying.

Fico's arguments

According to the Prime Minister, the margin of votes in the final tally was so small that, in his view, adjustments were made to make the result consistent with approval of EU accession. Fico noted that at the time both the ruling parties and the opposition — of which he himself was a part — supported accession; without such unity, the referendum would not have succeeded, in his assessment. The outlet does not report any reaction from the European Commission or Slovak institutions to the statement.

Context: conflict with the European Commission

The statement came against the backdrop of a protracted dispute between Bratislava and Brussels over energy. As the same source previously reported, Slovakia has already filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over the REPowerEU program, which envisages ending gas supplies to the country in 2027. Fico has stated that if the European Commission demands a renunciation of Russian energy resources as well, Slovakia is ready to go to court, and the country will likely also challenge the decision on the final cessation of oil supplies. Earlier, Slovakia assessed the prospects for the normalization of relations between the EU and Russia.