Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has rejected POLITICO Brussels’ claim that he ranted about US President Donald Trump’s mental health during the European Council summit last week. ‘The abuse of criminal law to destroy opponents, the rejection of different opinions, boundless media lies,’ Fico wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.
POLITICO Brussels claimed in an article published the same day that, according to five anonymous diplomats briefed by their leaders, Fico had expressed concerns about Trump’s ‘psychological state’ following their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on 17 January. The article alleged that Fico described the US president as ‘dangerous’ based on how he ‘came across’ during the face-to-face encounter. According to the diplomats cited, the Slovak prime minister supposedly made these remarks during an informal huddle with several leaders and senior EU officials, rather than at the formal roundtable discussions.
‘I must emphatically reject the lies of the POLITICO portal about how I assessed my meeting with US President D. Trump at an informal summit in Brussels,’ Fico wrote on X. He added that no one ‘heard or saw anything’ and that ‘there are no witnesses’, yet this did not prevent the outlet from ‘inventing lies’.
Fico stressed that he did not speak at the informal summit in Brussels at all. ‘I openly criticised this summit, its preparation, and its convening,’ he wrote, adding that he did not speak formally to any prime minister or president about his visit to the United States.
The Slovak prime minister further claimed there had been a ‘persistent effort’ to obstruct his visit to America, similar to what he described as attempts to hinder his earlier visit to Russia. ‘Some EU member states did not even allow me to fly over their territory,’ Fico alleged.
He also noted that while he agrees with ‘many strategies’ pursued by Trump, there are others he does not support. In this context, Fico reiterated that he had publicly rejected and condemned the US military action that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, describing it as a violation of international law. He said he had expected his US visit to be cancelled because of this stance, but it was not. ‘That makes me appreciate the meeting with the US president all the more,’ he added.
Fico accused POLITICO Brussels of attempting to undermine Slovakia’s constructive relations ‘with all four corners of the world’. He concluded by stating that if he needs to ‘express a critical opinion’, he does not require ‘any bullhorns’ to do so.
POLITICO Brussels, which Fico described as a mouthpiece of the Brussels elite, has long been running smear campaigns against patriotic leaders across Europe, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The outlet was recently manipulated its poll aggregation to show Orbán’s opposition ahead of Hungary’s crucial April election by excluding pollsters that put the prime minister in the lead. It has also been accused of repeatedly spreading misleading or false claims about both the Trump administration and the Orbán government, while portraying liberal and progressive figures in a consistently favourable light.
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