Political Career
He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1987. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Fico joined the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), a successor of the Communist Party of Slovakia. From 1994 to 2000 Fico represented Slovakia as its legal counsel at the European Court of Human Rights but lost all 14 cases which he handled.
In 1999, when support for the SDL dropped below the threshold required to get into parliament, Fico left and founded Direction – Social Democracy (SMER), becoming a popular opposition politician while criticizing the reforms of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda. Eventually, SMER became popular enough that it absorbed its parent party.
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