The European Socialist Congress, held in Prague on 7-8 December, has finalised the process of integrating Smer-SD into the PES.
The decision comes after a decision in February to re-launch Smer-SD's membership talks, which had been put on ice due to the party's controversial coalition with the Slovak Nationalist Party (SNS), which stands accused of xenophobia.
In the final vote, 93% of the delegates backed Smer-SD's alliance with the European social democratic family. However, Belgian and Hungarian parties voted against the move, claiming that the Slovak government's alliance with SNS is unacceptable as it promotes extremist and xenophobic views (see 'Background').
Most observers agree that the European Socialists have treated the Smer-SD issue pragmatically. Smer-SD is one of the few social democratic parties in the EU whose popularity is on the rise despite being in government, observers note. What is more, Smer has a very good chance of winning the next general elections in Slovakia, due in June 2010, and forming a new government.
In this context, the PES concluded that except for inappropriate comments by SNS leader Jan Slota regarding the Roma and Hungarian minorities, no disturbing trends at official level have been identified.
From a practical point of view, not much will change for Smer-SD after the Prague Congress, since it has already been taking part fully in the PES's work and activities, political analysts said.
However, the move is expected to help Fico on the domestic scene, where he now can claim that his party has the full international acceptance of the second-biggest European political family.
In fact, many European socialists would clearly prefer the SNS to be excluded from a second Fico government. Hannes Swoboda, an Austrian who is vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament, said in an interview with Hospodárske noviny that he considers the coalition with SNS to be against the principles of social democracy.
"Smer should take advantage of every reasonable opportunity to create a different government coalition," Swoboda said.
