He previously served as prime minister from to and from to He founded the left-wing political party Direction β Social Democracy in and has led the party since. Fico holds a record as the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for over 11 years. First elected to Parliament in , he was appointed the following year to the Czechoslovak delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe.
Following his party's victory in the parliamentary election , he formed his first Cabinet. His political positions have been described as populist , left-wing and conservative. After the parliamentary election , Fico served as an opposition member of parliament, effectively holding the position of the leader of the opposition. In , Fico declared his candidacy for the presidential election. Fico lost the election to his political rival Andrej Kiska in the second round of voting on 29 March During the parliamentary election , Fico vowed to end military support for Slovakia's neighbor Ukraine , which was being invaded by Russia.
His party Smer won Fico formed a coalition with Voice β Social Democracy Hlas , a party founded in by Pellegrini and other dissidents of Fico's Smer, and with the Slovak National Party , and began his fourth term as prime minister on 25 October. Fico's government has stopped military aid to Ukraine, moved to take greater control of the media , and abolished the Special Prosecutor's Office that dealt with corruption , which sparked mass protests.
On 15 May , Fico was hospitalized after an attempted assassination by his ex-admirer. Following attempts to pressure Ukraine into keeping Russian natural gas flowing into Slovakia, and meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin , mass protests calling for Fico's resignation or ouster arose in January He has two siblings. Fico has described his childhood ambitions as wanting to become either a politician, a sports reporter, or an archaeologist.
Later the same year he enrolled in the Law Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava , in what was then Czechoslovakia. After graduating from university, Fico completed his mandatory military service as an assistant military investigator, stationed in the now-Czech town of Janovice , between and Fico joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in , having applied in He was first elected as member of parliament in From to Fico represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights but lost all 14 cases which he handled.
