[11] In the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election, Šimečka ran as the leader of the Progressive Slovakia list, which won 32 mandates in the National Council.

[13] As the leader of the second strongest faction, Šimečka unsuccessfully tried to prevent the SMER party from coming back to power by forming a coalition government with Voice – Social Democracy, Freedom and Solidarity and Christian Democratic Movement.

[14] Nonetheless, this effort failed because Peter Pellegrini, the leader of Voice, decided to form a coalition government with SMER and the Slovak National Party instead.

[16] Nonetheless, in September 2024, the prime minister Robert Fico demanded his removal, accousing Šimečka's family of profiting from over a million euro in public subsidy.

[17] Šimečka rejected the allegations, arguing his relatives active in cultural and NGO sphere legitimately applied for grant funding which he could no influence in any way because Progressive Slovakia was never a part of government.

Progressive Slovakia published a list of dozens of coalition MPs, whose relatives received public subsidies, arguing its a common and legitimate situation.

[23] The same year on 31 January, prime minister of Slovakia Robert Fico together with Slovak Information Service showed photographs of Mamuka Mamulashvili, a leader of the Georgian National Legion (designated as a terrorist group by the Russian government)[24] with opposition activist Lucia Štasselová (2023 photograph from public debate in Bratislava[25]) and online news commentator Martin M. Šimečka, the father of opposition leader Michal Šimečka (photo from the handover of humanitarian aid purchased from a fundraising for Mamulashvili's unit in November 2023[26]).