HContrary to initial expectations, the left-wing populist Social Democratic Party, led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico, won the parliamentary elections in Slovakia. After counting nearly 99 percent of the electoral districts, the opposition „Trend – Slovak Social Democracy” party received 23.37 percent of the votes, according to the preliminary results of the Electoral Commission in Bratislava since early Sunday morning.
This meant that Fico’s pro-Russian party was indisputably ahead of the liberal party „Progressive Slovakia”. The Progress Party, which is not yet represented in Parliament, came in second place with 16.86 percent. Two Saturday evening Post-election polls published by TV channels PS had seen before Smer SSD. Party leader Michal Simica, a former member of the European Parliament, briefly felt like a winner. Voter turnout temporarily reached 68 percent.
However, it will not be easy for Fico to form a coalition with a sufficient majority. The more liberal Social Democrats under former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini are now likely to tip the scales. The Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas-SD) party came in third place with 15.03%. He has broken away from Fico’s Social Democratic Party, and is an option as a coalition partner for both Fico and Simica.
Arms shipments to Ukraine were an important issue in the election campaign
About 4.4 million citizens were called on Saturday to elect a new parliament. After the collapse of the centre-right government, a transitional government made up of technocrats and civil servants has been in power since May. The elections were considered a milestone for Slovakia’s democracy and attitude towards Russia and the European Union. The NATO member state lies directly on the border with Ukraine and has been one of Kiev’s most determined political and military supporters, including by supplying it with MiG fighter jets. However, Fico announced that he would end the arms aid programme, which was unpopular with the population, if he returned to power.
Fico served as head of the Slovak government from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. In 2018, he was forced to resign after the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée. Kuciak had researched the links between the Italian Mafia and Fico’s ruling party. But in the years since, there has been no calm in Slovak politics. Since 2018, there have been four prime ministers.
The elections, which began on Saturday morning, ended late in the evening. Instead of ten o’clock in the evening as planned, the last polling stations closed their doors after three quarters of an hour. The reason for this was that there were problems in individual polling stations as members of the election committee were suffering from health problems. By law, interruption of voting must be compensated for by a corresponding extension of voting time.