Robert Fico Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Robert Fico
Fico in 2023

Prime Minister of Slovakia
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 2023
President	Zuzana Čaputová Peter Pellegrini
Deputy	See list Robert Kaliňák Peter Kmec Denisa Saková Tomáš Taraba
Preceded by	Ľudovít Ódor
In office 4 April 2012 – 22 March 2018
President	Ivan Gašparovič Andrej Kiska
Deputy	See list Robert Kaliňák Peter Kažimír Miroslav Lajčák Ľubomír Vážny Peter Pellegrini Lucia Žitňanská Gabriela Matečná
Preceded by	Iveta Radičová
Succeeded by	Peter Pellegrini
In office 4 July 2006 – 8 July 2010
President	Ivan Gašparovič
Deputy	See list Dušan Čaplovič Robert Kaliňák Ján Mikolaj Štefan Harabin Viera Petríková
Preceded by	Mikuláš Dzurinda
Succeeded by	Iveta Radičová
Minister of Justice
*Acting* 26 March 2009 – 3 July 2009
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Štefan Harabin
Succeeded by	Viera Petríková
Deputy Speaker of the National Council
In office 9 July 2010 – 4 April 2012 Serving with Béla Bugár, Milan Hort and Pavol Hrušovský
Speaker	Richard Sulík Pavol Hrušovský
Member of the National Council
In office 22 March 2018 – 25 October 2023
In office 8 July 2010 – 4 April 2012
In office 23 June 1992 – 4 July 2006
Chairman of Direction – Social Democracy
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 November 1999
Preceded by	Office established

Personal details
Born	(1964-09-15) 15 September 1964 (age 60) Topoľčany, Czechoslovakia
Political party	Direction – Social Democracy (1999–present)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1986–1990) Party of the Democratic Left (1990–1999)
Spouse	Svetlana Svobodová (m. 1988)
Children	1
Alma mater	Comenius University (JUDr.) Slovak Academy of Sciences (CSc.)
Signature

Robert Fico (born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician. He has been the Prime Minister of Slovakia since 2023. He also held this important job from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018. Since 1999, he has been the main leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (Smer) political party.

Early Life and Education
- School Days
Political Career
Personal Life
Images for kids
See also

Early Life and Education

Robert Fico was born on 15 September 1964, in Topoľčany, a town in Slovakia. His father worked with forklifts, and his mother worked in a shoe store. He has two siblings, a brother and a sister. Robert lived in a village called Hrušovany until he was six, then his family moved to Topoľčany.

School Days

When he was a child, Fico dreamed of becoming a politician, a sports reporter, or an archaeologist. After finishing elementary school, he went to a local high school (Gymnasium) in Topoľčany. He graduated in 1982.

Later that year, he started studying law at Comenius University in Bratislava. His teachers thought he was very smart and ambitious. One of his teachers, who later became prime minister, said Fico was "very confident and very involved in discussions." He earned his law degree in 1986, focusing on criminal law.

After university, Fico served in the military as an assistant investigator. He also worked for the Institute of State and Law and the Justice Ministry until 1992. During this time, he earned his PhD degree. He also studied in London in the early 1990s. In 2002, he became an associate professor.

Political Career

Robert Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1986. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when the communist government ended, he joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ). This party was a new version of the Communist Party.

He was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1992. From 1994 to 2000, Fico worked as Slovakia's legal advisor at the European Court of Human Rights. In 1998, he became the deputy chairman of his party.

First Term as Prime Minister (2006–2010)

After his party won the 2006 election, Robert Fico became Prime Minister for the first time. His victory was largely because he criticized the previous government's economic changes. These changes were seen as good by international groups like the International Monetary Fund, but they made life harder for many ordinary people.

Fico promised to change these reforms. Once in office, he was careful with changes because he wanted Slovakia to join the Euro currency. This was successful, and Slovakia started using the Euro on 1 January 2009.

Fico's government made some changes to labor laws. For example, they set rules on how many times employees could be kept as temporary workers. They also made it harder for employers to keep new staff on temporary contracts for too long.

Fico was against the plan to build new U.S. missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland. One of his first actions as Prime Minister was to remove Slovak troops from Iraq. He called the Iraq War "unjust and wrong." In 2013, Fico met with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the partnership between their countries.

Opposition and Second Term (2010–2018)

After the 2010 election, Fico became the leader of the opposition in Parliament. He returned as Prime Minister after his party won a big victory in the 2012 election. His party won enough seats to form a government on its own, which was the first time this happened since 1989.

In his second term, Fico introduced a new "Labour Code." This law gave workers more rights, like notice periods and severance pay if they lost their jobs. It also limited overtime and made it more expensive for employers to lay off staff.

In 2010, Fico faced protests from truckers who were unhappy about new highway tolls. They wanted fuel prices to be lower. Fico first refused to talk to them but later agreed to some of their demands.

In 2013, Fico ran for president in the 2014 election. However, he lost to his opponent, Andrej Kiska.

Fico disagreed with the European Commission's plan to share refugees from the Middle East and Africa among EU countries. He said that Slovakia would not accept mandatory quotas. He also stated that "Islam has no place in Slovakia." In 2016, his government passed a law requiring religious groups to have at least 50,000 members to be officially recognized by the state.

On 15 March 2018, Fico resigned as Prime Minister. Peter Pellegrini then formed a new government.

Return to Power (2023–Present)

Fico's party, Smer, won the most votes in the 2023 election. He became Prime Minister again on 25 October 2023.

On 15 May 2024, Robert Fico was hospitalized after an attempt on his life. He had emergency surgery and is expected to recover.

Personal Life

Robert Fico is married to Svetlana Ficová, who is also a lawyer. They met while studying law at Comenius University and got married in 1988. They have one son, Michal. Besides Slovak, Fico can speak Czech, English, and Russian.

Images for kids

Fico with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, 4 February 2016
Fico with President of the European Council Donald Tusk and Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas in Talinn, Estonia, 2017
Robert Fico standing with Donald Tusk, Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, September 2016
Fico and other V4 leaders with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the V4-Israel summit in Budapest, 19 July 2017
Fico with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 7 April 2010
Press conference following the meeting of leaders of Visegrád Group, Germany and France, 6 March 2013