The country’s economic decline is the result of two decades of missed opportunities, misguided policies, and four cabinets led by Robert Fico.
Economist
Ivan Mikloš is a former finance minister and president of MESA 10.
Robert Fico’s fourth government differs from his previous administrations in several respects, not least because it is the first time he has governed under genuinely difficult economic conditions.
His first government, which came to power in mid-2006, inherited an economy that had been transformed by Slovakia’s accession to the European Union and by the reforms implemented by the two governments of Mikuláš Dzurinda. Those reforms had set the economy on such a strong trajectory that Slovakia was recording the fastest economic growth rates in Europe and among the highest in the world. This growth filled the state coffers with a large and steadily increasing stream of revenue, while also allowing Fico to claim political credit for Slovakia’s entry into the eurozone on 1 January 2009.
