BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The government of Slovakia is scheduled to undergo a parliamentary confidence vote on Thursday, prompted by the country’s national debt climbing beyond limits established in its Constitution.
The vote was set in motion after the nation’s Constitutional Court — its highest legal authority — ruled on Wednesday that the government must seek a confidence vote without delay.
Prime Minister Robert Fico, a populist leader, said he would respect the court’s decision and proceeded to call for the vote.
Fico’s coalition government controls 78 of the 150 seats in the Slovak parliament, known as the National Council, giving it a majority and making it the strong favorite to survive the vote. Coalition members moved to cap the debate at 12 and a half hours.
Fico noted that his government had originally intended to tie the confidence vote to a separate vote on next year’s state budget, which was expected to take place later this year.
The opposition brought the matter before the court in November, following a determination by Eurostat — the European Union’s official statistics body — that Slovak debt had reached 59.7% of gross national product the prior month. That figure has since climbed to 61.4%, according to the Slovak Statistics Office. Despite the increase, Slovakia’s debt level remains below the average across EU member nations.
The constitutional threshold that triggers a mandatory confidence vote in Slovakia is set at 50% of gross national product.
Like many European nations, Slovakia ramped up government spending in response to the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, which sent energy costs surging.
Slovakia’s Supreme Audit Office reported Tuesday that the country’s economy expanded by just 0.8% in 2025 — the weakest growth rate in three years — while government expenditures continued to rise at a faster pace, adding pressure to the country’s debt levels.
Fico has remained a controversial figure since reclaiming power in 2023. His pro-Russian positions and various policy decisions have sparked repeated protests across the country.
