Slovak PM Fico Commends Musk on USAID Reduction Efforts
(Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump's government efficiency adviser, Elon Musk, for aiming to dismantle the main U.S. aid agency, saying its funds were used to "deform the political system" in Slovakia.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a top target of a government reduction overhaul spearheaded by billionaire and Trump ally Musk since the Republican president took office on January 20.
Fico, the leader of the leftist-nationalist government in Slovakia, has long waged a war of words against the pro-Western liberal opposition, non-governmental organisations and media in his country, accusing them of conspiring against Slovakia.
"It is indisputable that financial means originating in USAID were used in Slovakia also for political aims with the aim of deforming the political system and giving advantage to selected political parties," Fico said in a letter to Musk posted on Facebook.
He did not give any evidence for this.
Fico asked Musk to provide information on grants to "non-governmental organisations, media and individual journalists active on the territory of the Slovak Republic" to find projects that he said interfered in Slovakia's internal matters.
Fico has faced peaceful protests in recent weeks by tens of thousands of people across the central European country for what they see as backsliding on democracy and a turn in foreign policy towards Russia. He has accused organisers of the protests of planning to overthrow the government in a coup, without providing any evidence.
Fico's letter followed comments by his ally and neighbour Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who said on Friday he would take steps to ensure all aid funding coming from the United States to NGOs and media critical of the government is revealed, saying the time had come to "eliminate these foreign networks".
The Roman Catholic Church's worldwide charity arm sharply criticized Trump's cuts to U.S. foreign aid on Monday, saying his plans to end funding for USAID will have a "catastrophic" impact in the developing world.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Frances Kerry)
