BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia will fight against immigration from Muslim countries to prevent attacks like the shootings in Paris and assaults of women in Germany, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday, declaring that multi-culturalism was "a fiction".
Fico has made immigration the key element of his campaign ahead of a March 5 parliamentary election and his government has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission's plan for mandatory quotas to share out 120,000 asylum seekers among the EU's 28 member states.
"Not only are we refusing mandatory quotas, we will never make a voluntary decision that would lead to formation of a unified Muslim community in Slovakia," Fico told reporters in Bratislava.
Linking the influx of migrants into Europe to the November attacks in Paris and reports of 90 women in the German city of Cologne being assaulted, he said: "Multi-culturalism is a fiction. Once you let migrants in, you can face such problems."
Fico's anti-immigration stance finds an echo with voters in Slovakia, a Catholic country of 5.4 million with a largely homogenous society and next to no experience as a destination for immigrants.
It received only 169 asylum requests last year. But it is being asked to take in 802 migrants under the European scheme that it is challenging.
His tough views are to various degrees shared around central Europe. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government in Hungary has also challenged mandatory quotas in court, and Orban has repeatedly said the influx of refugees into Europe threatens to undermine the continent's Christian roots.
The new Polish conservative government has spoken in favour of stemming migration, saying they cannot repeat the mistakes of other countries. However it said it would stick to its predecessor's commitment to take in about 7,000 migrants.
Though Slovakia took 149 Christians from Iraq late last year they faced a frosty reception and plans to lodge them with local volunteer families had to be abandoned after public protests.
