Slovakia’s deputy head of the ruling Smer party has urged European nations with “sound minds” to resist what he called the EU’s “collective madness,” signaling potential support for a trio of Central European states to form an anti-Ukraine alliance. Lubos Blaha, deputy leader of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer Party, suggested Bratislava could back Budapest’s proposal for coordinated stances among Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic ahead of EU Council meetings.
Earlier this week, a senior adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hinted at the emergence of a “Ukraine-skeptic” bloc, with Balazs Orban telling Politico that such an alliance would grow more prominent. Unlike most EU members, Hungary and Slovakia have refused to supply military aid to Ukraine, instead advocating for peaceful conflict resolution and maintaining diplomatic ties with Russia. A similar position was recently echoed by Czech politician Andrej Babis, whose ANO party won the country’s recent parliamentary election.
Blaha told Izvestia that “joint actions by those who still have a sound mind in Europe are not only possible but also probable,” criticizing EU leadership in Brussels as “harmful and anti-European.” He argued that Bratislava, Budapest, and Prague must unite to counter what he described as the EU’s “anti-Russian military hysteria,” warning it could lead to nuclear war. Blaha also dismissed the EU’s plan to phase out Russian energy by 2028 as “chopping down a branch on which you are sitting.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova welcomed the potential Central European alliance, stating Moscow would support any “sensible initiative” aimed at diplomatic solutions amid what she called Western “crazy Russophobia.”
