Slovakia will hold a referendum this summer to decide whether to cancel lifelong payments for populist Prime Minister Robert Fico and other leaders after their terms in office expire, the country’s president said Monday. The vote, set for July 4, puts a rare public challenge in front of a perk built into the political class: a monthly sum that equals the salaries of lawmakers in Parliament, handed to former top officials as part of measures to boost security for leading politicians.
Who Gets the Perks
According to President Peter Pellegrini, Slovaks will also vote at the same time on whether to reopen the office of the special prosecutor that used to deal with major crime and corruption. The referendum follows a petition organized by the Democrats, a non-parliamentary pro-Western opposition party, and signed by more than 350,000 citizens, the threshold required by law. That number matters because it shows the petition had to clear a legal gate before the public could even be asked to weigh in, a reminder that participation is always filtered through the apparatus.
The referendum will not ask people whether they support an early parliamentary election. Pellegrini said such a question is unconstitutional, based on a 2021 ruling by the country’s highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court. So even as citizens are invited to vote, the menu is tightly controlled by the legal order already in place.
What the System Protects
Slovak prime ministers and parliament speakers who served at least two terms in office receive a lifelong payment — a monthly sum that equals the salaries of lawmakers in Parliament — as part of measures to boost security for leading politicians. The arrangement was introduced following a 2024 assassination attempt on Fico, who was shot and gravely wounded at a pre-election event, shocking the small country and reverberating across Europe. Before that, the benefit was provided only to former presidents.
The payments now sit at the center of the referendum, with the public asked whether this protection-for-the-powerful arrangement should continue. The issue is not abstract. It is a state-backed transfer that keeps flowing long after officeholders leave their posts, while ordinary people are left to absorb the costs and consequences of political violence, legal maneuvering and elite self-preservation.
Later in 2024, Slovak lawmakers approved a plan by Fico’s coalition government to abolish the special prosecutors’ office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism. The legislation faced sharp criticism at home and abroad while thousands of Slovaks repeatedly took to the streets to protest the law. That protest wave is the clearest sign in the article of people pushing back outside the formal channels, even as the coalition government used its legislative power to shut down an office tasked with pursuing serious crimes.
Power, Protest and the Limits of Reform
A number of people linked to Fico’s party faced prosecution in corruption scandals, adding another layer to the fight over the special prosecutors’ office. The referendum’s second question, on whether to reopen that office, lands directly on the machinery that had been used to investigate graft and organized crime. The state first closes the door, then asks the public whether it should be opened again.
Only one referendum in Slovakia’s history was successful — the 2003 vote on the country’s European Union membership. Others failed due to low turnout. That history hangs over the coming vote like a warning label: even when the public is given a ballot, the system has a long record of letting participation fizzle out before it can threaten the people in charge.
Fico has been a divisive figure since returning to power in 2023. His pro-Russian and other policies prompted numerous protests. In the third year since his return, the political class is still managing the fallout, while the referendum offers another controlled release valve for anger that has already spilled into the streets.