In March 2018, owing to the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak, Fico delivered his resignation to Kiska, who then charged Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with the formation of a new government.

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.

SNS is a right-wing populist party which has been known for making anti-Roma and anti-Hungarian comments,[12] including a drunken public speech by Ján Slota, in which he threatened to "get in tanks and level Budapest to the ground.

In late February 2008, the Assembly of the PES conditionally reinstated the application after both SMER and SNS signed a letter committing themselves to respect minority rights.

[23] Following the fall of the centre-right coalition government that replaced his, Fico's Smer-SD returned to power being the first party since the breakup of Czechoslovakia to win an absolute majority of seats.

[25] Fico was defeated by the independent candidate Andrej Kiska, whose support from the Slovak right wing led him to victory by a wide margin (approximately 59%–41%) in the second round of voting on 29 March 2014.

[30] On 14 March 2018, Fico publicly stated that he was ready to tender his resignation as prime minister in order to avoid a snap election, as well as to "solve the political crisis" involving the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

The ruling coalition fast-tracked the amendments through parliament, limiting the time for debate and preventing the draft law from being reviewed by experts and others usually involved in the process.

This was condemned as an attack on press freedom by President Zuzana Čaputová, local journalists, the opposition, international media organizations, the European Commission and others, who warned that the changes would give the government full control of Slovak public television and radio.

[53] Fico traveled to Russia on 22 December 2024 to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss primarily the transfer of Russian gas to Slovakia,[54] becoming the third Western leader to do so since the war started.

[66] Due to Fico's continued vocal support for Russia, and opposition to Ukraine, tens of thousands of people protested throughout Slovakia in late January 2025.

He said the group would occupy government buildings, block roads, organise a nationwide strike and provoke clashes with police forces as part of their plan.

[67] Fico originally advocated the third way (recognition of the value of the market and business, but the role of government and a strong state), at the same time but his views gradually evolved.

[49][51] At the start of his second term as prime minister in 2012, Fico introduced a new Labour Code, which granted entitlement to a lay-off notice period, as well as severance pay, reduced overtime, making layoffs more expensive for employers, shorter temporary work contracts, and more power for trade unions.

A lower value added tax was imposed on medications and books; despite his electoral promises, Fico failed to extend this onto a wider group of products such as groceries.

[96] In foreign relations with Europe, Fico's government faced controversies due to its affiliation with the internationally isolated parties of Vladimír Mečiar and Ján Slota.

[101] Commenting on Brexit in November 2016, Fico stated that it was unclear what the United Kingdom (UK) wanted, adding that it "must suffer" more than the 27 countries who would remain in the bloc.

[104] Fico rejected European Commission's plan to distribute refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa among EU member states, saying: "As long as I am prime minister, mandatory quotas will not be implemented on Slovak territory.

"[108] On 30 November 2016, the Slovak parliament under Fico government passed a bill that requires all religious movements and organizations to have a minimum of 50,000 verified practicing members in order to become state-recognized, up from 20,000.

[114] In June 2008, The Slovak Spectator published a piece which summarized his foreign policy in this way: Compensating for his lack of close political allies within the EU, the former Czech Social Democratic Party leader Jiří Paroubek being a notable exception, Fico sought to strengthen relations with several non-EU countries such as Serbia and Russia.

[112] Under his premiership, the Slovak foreign ministry rejected the March 2014 Crimean status referendum, which incorporated Crimea into Russia; Fico himself remained silent on the issue.

[131] Tension between Slovakia and Hungary, unstable from the past, was inflamed in 2006 following the parliamentary election and Fico's decision to include nationalist Ján Slota and his Slovak National Party into his governing coalition.

"[134] In the wake of the election several incidents occurred which further inflamed nationalist sentiment on both sides, including the alleged beating of a Hungarian woman in South Slovakia.

"[140] Fico was a vocal opponent of the one-time planned construction of new U.S. anti-ballistic missile and radar systems in military bases in neighbouring Czech Republic and Poland,[141] and one of his first steps upon taking office was withdrawing Slovak troops from Iraq.

[44] In October 2023, Fico condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel but rejected "considerations of razing the Gaza Strip to the ground or denying humanitarian aid in this area".

[150] In November 2016, Fico termed journalists questioning him about allegations of public procurement rules during Slovakia's EU presidency as "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes".

This occurred after Fico participated in a discussion with Daniel Bombic, a Slovak YouTuber known as Danny Kollar, for whose arrest three international warrants had been issued due to alleged online harassment and extremist crimes.

[168] Patrik Dubovský, a historian and former researcher of the National Memory Institute, considers it to be an attempt to manipulate public opinion because "confirmation was in direct conflict with Communist Party membership, whose political programme was based on atheism."

[170] In August 2010, Fico was photographed around midnight in a gay bar in downtown Bratislava together with a woman, who was later revealed to be 25-year-old Jana Halászová, a secretary at the Smer-SD party headquarters.

After leaving the prosecution office, Szalayová gained employment in the law firm of Robert Kaliňák, former deputy prime minister during Fico's cabinets and incumbent member of SMER–SD party presidium.