Slovakia's Fico gets two weeks to form government after election win

SMER-SSD party leader Robert Fico arrives to the party's headquarters after the country's early parliamentary elections, in Bratislava, Slovakia, October 1, 2023. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa

(Reuters) -Slovakia's leftist election winner Robert Fico got a two-week window to negotiate a coalition government on Monday, after steering his party to an election victory over the weekend with promises to stop military aid to Ukraine.

Fico campaigned on rhetoric that would shift Slovakia, a European Union and NATO member state, closer to Hungary in challenging the bloc's consensual support of Ukraine against Russia.