Surprise in the parliamentary elections in Slovakia: According to forecasts, the liberal party Progressive Slovakia will emerge as the strongest force in the vote. The left-wing populist Fico’s Smer-SSD party only came in second.
As expected, the early parliamentary elections in Slovakia are shaping up to be a close race. Post-election polls late Saturday evening showed a slight lead for the liberal party Progressive Slovakia (PS) led by EU Vice-Parliament President Michal Simecka. According to TV Markiza it reached 23.5 percent and according to RTVS almost 20 percent. So far, the PS has not even been represented in parliament.
Former Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer party, which was slightly ahead in polls before the election, achieved 21.9 percent according to TV Markiza and 19.1 percent according to RTVS. The results should be known by Sunday morning.
Formation of government could be difficult
Given the expected outcome, forming a government is likely to be difficult. Simecka would have to rely on coalition partners to achieve a majority in the 150-seat parliament in Bratislava.
The more liberal Social Democrats under former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who split off from the Fico party, are now likely to tip the scales. This party, called “Voice – Social Democracy” (Hlas-SD), together with small bourgeois parties, could help the PS achieve a comfortable majority – or prevent it.
The election was seen as a landmark for democracy in the country and its positioning towards Russia and the EU. It was therefore questionable whether the EU and NATO member state would continue its military aid to Ukraine in the fight against Russia unabated. Slovakia has, among other things, delivered MiG fighter jets to Kiev. Smer-SD leader Fico had announced that he wanted to stop military aid to Ukraine.
Fico resigned after journalist murder
Fico was head of the Slovakian government from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. In 2018 he had to resign after the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancé. Kuciak had researched connections between the Italian mafia and Fico’s ruling party. In the years that followed, however, there was no calm in Slovakian politics; since 2018 there have been a total of four prime ministers.
After the collapse of the center-right government, a transitional government made up of technocrats and civil servants has been in office since May.
Around 4.4 million citizens were called upon to elect a new parliament. The election, which began on Saturday morning, ended late in the evening. Instead of 10 p.m. as planned, the last polling stations closed three quarters of an hour later. The reason for this were problems in individual polling stations where election commission members had health problems. According to the law, interruptions in voting must be compensated for by a corresponding extension of the voting time.