'Islam has no place' says Slovakia's PM ahead of EU Council presidency

The next presidency of the EU Council will fall to a government that believes "Islam has no place" in its country.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is one of the most outspoken critics of Muslim immigration in the European Union. He has warned he would not allow an "Islam-driven" change to affect his country. On July 1 Fico's government will replace the Netherlands as the head of the EU council.

The presidency of the council of the European Union is appointed undemocratically on a six-month rotation. It is a position held by a national government and has responsibility for setting the agenda of the EU's upper house of law makers. Alongside the European Parliament, the Council is part of the EU's legislature and is made up of ministers from each of the 28 member states.

Slovakia will take over the presidency next week as the Netherlands' six-month cycle ends. But concerns have been raised about the implications of Fico's anti-Islamic agenda on integration.

"Islam has no place in Slovakia," he told reporters in May as he warned that "migrants change the character of our country". He vowed he would "never make a voluntary decision that would lead to the formation of a unified Muslim community in Slovakia".

Fico said: "Multiculturalism is a fiction.

"Once you let migrants in, you can face such problems", he said, referring to the sex attacks on German women in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

"Since Slovakia is a Christian country, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300,000 to 400,000 Muslim immigrants who would like to start building mosques all over our land and trying to change the nature, culture and values of the state," he said.