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C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000966 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2016 
TAGS: PREL POLG ECON ENRG AF LO
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S DECEMBER 13 MEETING WITH PRIME 
MINISTER FICO 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee for reason 1.4 (b) and (d) 
. 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Prime Minister Fico told the Ambassador 
December 13 that: 
--he will travel to Afghanistan in January and announce that 
Slovak troops will move to Kandahar, 
--he is in firm control of the government; and coalition 
partners Meciar and Slota are just sideshows, and 
--he is determined to keep the economy strong, and impending 
changes to the labor code will not hurt investors.  Fico is a 
consummate politician who many times in the past promised us 
what we wanted to hear on foreign policy issues and then not 
followed through.  On the other hand, he has also told the UK 
Ambassador that she would be very happy with the final 
decision on Kandahar, and so we have some new optimism that 
Slovakia will respond favorably to the NATO request.  Fico 
did nothing to dampen the image that he runs a "one-man 
government," but given his coalition partners, that may not 
be a bad thing.  End summary. 
 
Strong on the Budget, Strong in the Polls 
----------------------------------------- 
¶2. (C) At an hour-long, one-on-one meeting with the 
Ambassador December 13, Prime Minister Robert Fico was 
clearly in a good mood after his budget had passed along 
party lines earlier in the week.   He noted that the 
opposition was completely baffled over how to oppose the 
budget since it kept Slovakia on track for the Euro, did not 
present any dramatic changes, and promised a number of 
goodies consistent with his vision of a social democratic 
state.  He took pains to note how the people he met on the 
campaign trail during the run-up to the mayoral elections 
understood that he could not do all he promised but the fact 
that he was doing something engendered considerable goodwill. 
 He specifically singled out the Christmas bonus to 
pensioners as something entire families were talking about at 
this special time of year.   He let the Ambassador know that 
Friday poll releases will show Smer holding strong with 
preference ratings above 40%. 
 
Health, Future Plans 
-------------------------- 
¶3. (C) Fico stated clearly that he would not be a candidate 
for PM in 2010.   He is tired after 16 years in politics and 
was sure he could find something to do.  He said, "You know I 
am a criminal lawyer, and there are a lot of criminals in 
Slovakia."   By making this clear, there is no challenge to 
his leadership in the party, unlike the problems within KDH 
and, he believes, within SDKU.   "I don't want to end my 
career like Dzurinda."  On his health, he noted that his 
swings in blood pressure continue but his condition is much 
improved because he insists on working out daily, pointing 
out soccer, hockey and swimming activities in the last three 
days.  (Comment: Fico is a political animal.  We cannot take 
for granted that he would refuse to run again.  End comment.) 
 
 
Meciar and His Friends of Ill Repute 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶4. (C) The Ambassador asked about HZDS leader Vladimir Meciar 
and reports of intra-coalition tensions.  The PM shrugged, 
and responded that Meciar only wants parliamentary immunity 
and money, noting that this was now a family affair as 
Meciar,s son was returning to Slovakia to "build a big house 
on a big plot like Electra (Meciar,s own opulent 
residence)."  Regarding Meciar's continued focus on people 
and things that remind all of his murky past, Fico noted that 
Meciar was taking care of friends.  Meciar had even tried to 
convince Fico to apologize on behalf of Slovakia to former 
SIS-boss Ivan Lexa (notorious for blatant misuse of his 
office in the 1990s)  in exchange for getting Lexa to drop 
his suit in front of the European Court of Human Rights. 
Fico refused. 
 
¶5. (C) Fico believes Meciar has no other option to stay in 
the government.  Fico said he will continue to tolerate 
Meciar,s games because he believes they don,t undermine his 
own essential control of the government.  Fico noted that the 
debate over Rezes, Urban, and even Lexa (Meciar's corrupt 
cronies for whom he has obtained positions in government or 
on boards of government-controlled companies) were sideshows 
while Fico,s ministers dominate essential governmental 
functions.  KDH is so split that Meciar has no option to go 
with Dzurinda, and if they did, KDH and HZDS would both be 
decimated in early elections.  Slovak National Party (SNS) 
leader Jan Slota is "wealthy beyond imagination" and only 
cares about financial matters, so he will continue to provide 
coalition stability.   He lost the Zilina election because he 
was napping and didn,t pay attention to organizing. 
 
 
Afghanistan 
-------------- 
¶6. (C) The Ambassador delivered a tough message on 
Afghanistan.  He said that Fico,s concept of deployment of 
Slovak forces only when there was no danger made a mockery 
out of the alliance, and that NATO should not have to wait 
six months for a response to a redeployment request.  He told 
Fico that our patience had run out, and that he had prepared 
a critical speech for Thursday's public conference on NATO 
and Global Security, which we would rather modify if Fico 
could show us he was coming around to our position.   The 
Ambassador also noted that President Gasporovic had asked 
that the Ambassador deliver the information that the 
president concurred with our message of needing to meet 
one,s obligations within NATO.   The Ambassador pointed out 
that all the government's talk about needing more force 
protection was a red herring because the Dutch, Canadians, 
and British had all offered protection equal to that given to 
their own troops.  He further argued that what Afghanistan 
needed was more roads, precisely the thing Slovak troops were 
trained and equipped to provide. 
 
¶7. (C) Fico responded that just as important as NATO 
commitments were the sentiments of Slovak voters.  The 
Ambassador answered that at some point Fico needed to be more 
of a statesman and less of a poll reader. 
 
¶8. (C) Smiling, Fico responded that Slovakia would indeed 
move the engineers to Kandahar, but the announcement would 
follow a trip to Kandahar so that he could personally see the 
situation on the ground.  He invited the Ambassador to 
accompany him.  The trip would be in late January and the 
announcement would be either in Kandahar or upon return to 
Slovakia.  (Note: Obviously the trip is about political 
optics since he was clear he has made his decision). 
 
Possible Trip to the U.S. 
------------------------------- 
¶9. (C) Fico said he was inclined to accept the US Chamber of 
Commerce's invitation to speak to the Chamber in Washington 
in January.  The Ambassador noted that with such short notice 
it would be difficult to arrange high level USG meetings, but 
we would do our best.  (Note: The local AmCham told us the 
Chamber invitation was not pegged to a specific date.  The 
desire for January seems to have been the PM's.) 
 
Belarus 
--------- 
¶10. (C) The Ambassador told Fico that we had urged the Slovak 
NGO Pontis Foundation to invite him to meet Milinkevich, and 
that they had not done so, to our disappointment.   Yes, he 
replied, "nobody should be in a position to criticize my 
government (as Pontis had) when they failed to offer any 
invitation; I would have met with him."  (Comment: MFA 
contacts told us they had passed an invitation to Fico to 
meet with Milinkevich, but had received a negative response. 
We cannot yet confirm which story is correct.)  Fico noted 
that Slovak Belarus policy would follow the EU, that he 
supported FM Jan Kubis's V4 and Baltic Belarus initiative 
(including a commitment to push the EU to help the opposition 
and civil society generally--septel), but that he thinks 
engagement with Belarus should not just be with the 
opposition.   Belarus, he noted, is not ripe for an 
Orange-like revolution.  In his visit five years ago he 
discovered that with average Belarussians Lukashenko was very 
popular.   He thinks that while the election was fixed, 
Lukashenko still had the support of the majority of the 
people. 
 
Relations with NGOs 
-------------------------- 
¶11. (C) The Ambassador asked why the government had picked a 
fight with Slovakia's excellent NGOs over the 2% tax 
setaside.  Fico explained that it had started as a budget 
item, but the political pressure from civicl society was 
acute, and he responded to that pressure.  He insisted 
everything was fine now, and the GOS would work with NGOs on 
a plan for the future.  (Comment: We will monitor closely and 
weigh in as necessary.)  The Ambassador noted the irony of 
Meciar being the white horse riding to the rescue of the 
NGOs.  Fico responded that he surely has a financial deall 
with SPP, the Slovak gas company which funneled a lot of 
"charity" money to its own foundation. 
 
Upcoming Travels 
----------------------- 
¶12.  (C) Fico disclosed spring travel plans to Libya (to push 
a service contract for a Trencin airplane service company), 
Britain (to meet with Blair in January or February), 
 
Argentina, Brazil, and Chile (there are many old Czechoslovak 
business ties there), as well as to as many of his EU 
partners as possible. 
 
Labor Code 
-------------- 
¶13. (C) The Ambassador asked about Fico's intentions on the 
sensitive topic of dramatic changes to the labor code, which 
the Smer-led Labor Ministry is rumored to be developing. 
Fico said, "There is no reason to panic.  Do you think I 
would endanger this economy, which can fund my social vision, 
by driving the foreign investment away?  Yes, there will be 
changes, and yes we have a compact with the Trade Unions, but 
I will not submit something to the parliament until there is 
TRIPARTA, that is Latin you know, agreement between the 
government, employees, and employers.   This will be very 
much like my budget; in the end the opposition will have 
nothing to attack.   I will, however, return employees to a 
time when they can refuse to work for safety reasons; that 
would have prevented the mining tragedy (in Novaky, in which 
three miners perished)."  The Ambassador urged dialogue with 
the Embassy and the AmCham as part of the process. 
 
Comment: 
------- 
¶14. (C)  Fico has a track record of telling people what they 
want to hear, but he was clear to the Ambassador that he was 
willing to go along with the move to Kandahar.  He has also 
whispered to the British Ambassador that she would be pleased 
when he announced his final decision.  We have new optimism 
that he will respond favorably to NATO's request to move 
troops to Kandahar.  Fico gave the impression of being firmly 
in control of the reins of government, doing nothing to 
dispel the image he is a one-man show.  On the other hand, 
the alternative would be considerably more power for Slota 
and Meciar, an unacceptable alternative internationally. 
VALLEE