SLOVAKIA’S likely next prime minister Robert Fico is on a collision course with EU social democrats who have attacked his Smer party as pro-Russian.

Stefan Loefven, president of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European parliament, warned during Slovakia’s election campaign that Smer (an acronym for Direction – Slovak Social Democracy) might need to be expelled from the group because it called for an end to arming Ukraine.

“The Socialists & Democrats support Ukraine and we expect our member parties to,” Mr Loefven said — adding on Tuesday that action to expel Smer could be expected if it enacted in government the policies it championed in the campaign.