Following a playbook from Hungary and Russia’s leaders, Slovakia’s populist government on Friday passed an illiberal ragbag of measures in a constitutional amendment that defines sex as binary, bans adoption by same-sex couples, outlaws surrogacy, and asserts the E.U. member’s “national sovereignty in cultural and ethical matters.”

Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose coalition of populist, leftist, and nationalist parties has faced mounting demonstrations in the country’s capital, Bratislava, promoted the amendment as a bulwark against liberal ideology that was “spreading like cancer” in the central European state.

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His populist-nationalist government argued the amendment was necessary to protect “traditional values.”

Fico said he would celebrate with a shot of liquor following the amendment’s knife-edge passage in the 150-seat Slovak National Council on Friday.

“This isn’t a little dam, or just a regular dam – this is a great dam against progressivism,” he declared to followers.

Fico leads a precarious coalition of parties across the political spectrum. His own Smer-Social Democracy party has morphed into a nationalist party far removed from the progressive values of Europe’s center-left mainstream that it was founded on.

Smer was suspended from the Party of European Socialists in 2023 after forming a coalition government with the country’s far-right Slovak National Party. It’s expected to be expelled at a gathering of European Socialists next month.

“The Slovak constitution has fallen victim to Robert Fico’s plan to dismantle the opposition and divert attention from the real problems of society, as well as the austerity measures he had to pass,” Beata Balagova, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily SME, told the BBC.

“Fico does not genuinely care about gender issues, the ban on surrogate motherhood, or even adoptions by LGBTQ people,” she added.

Fico has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin four times in the last year.

Passage of the amendment was in doubt as late as Thursday.

The amendment required a three-fifths majority in the 150-seat National Council, or 90 votes, while Fico’s coalition only comprises 78 members. In the end, 12 opposition members, including several from former Prime Minister Igor Matovič’s movement, added their votes.

Igor Matovič described them as traitors.

Amnesty International said the vote brings Slovakia’s legal system closer to the authoritarian governments of Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Putin’s Russia.

“Today, the Slovak government chose to follow the lead of countries, such as Hungary, whose policies have led to an erosion of human rights,” it said in a statement.

Legal scholars in Slovakia have said that the amendment enshrining the primacy of the Slovak constitution over E.U. law sets up a direct challenge to the European Union and will doubtless lead to a showdown.

“Seeking to disapply specific rights because they touch upon ‘national identity’ would be fundamentally incompatible with the Slovak Republic’s international obligations,” said Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty before the vote.