2023-09-30 22:32:01
Victory in the early parliamentary elections in Slovakia apparently goes to Oxford graduate and EU Parliament Vice-President Michal Simecka’s Progressive Slovakia (PS). According to a post-election survey by the most-watched private TV channel Markiza, carried out by the renowned polling agency Focus, 23.5 percent of voters voted for the young liberal and pro-EU and Ukraine party on Saturday.
According to the media group RTVS it was 19.97 percent. The social democratic party Smer of the left-wing populist and former prime minister Robert Fico came in second with 21.9 percent and 19.09 percent, respectively, which means that he has probably missed his hoped-for comeback. Fico, who resigned five and a half years ago following the murder of a journalist as a result of large-scale demonstrations, wanted to dissuade the EU and NATO country from its previously strictly pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
However, the numbers were still considered preliminary and the final results might differ significantly from the post-election survey, observers warned. Simecka himself was cautious in his initial reaction. The forecasts look promising, but the results have not yet been counted, said Simecka, according to the TASR news agency.
Forming a government will likely be difficult. Former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (47), who split off from Ficos Smer, is seen as the kingmaker by social democratic Hlas (votes), which came third according to exit polls. It is considered more moderate than the Smer. According to Focus, Hlas received 12.2 percent of the vote. In an initial reaction, Pellegrini did not want to speculate regarding who Hlas would enter into a coalition with.
Seven to eight parties might have made it into the National Council. This probably also includes Igor Matovic’s populist Ordinary People (Olano) with 8 percent, which is a very narrow result. They ran as an electoral alliance and therefore needed seven percent to get back into the National Council. Matovic and his Olano were considered to be primarily responsible for the three and a half years of political chaos in Slovakia.
However, several parties with a preliminary result close to the five percent hurdle might still miss entry into parliament.
Around 4.4 million citizens were eligible to vote. The election was seen as a directional choice for Slovakia’s democracy and its positioning towards Russia and the EU. Fico had announced that it would stop military aid to Ukraine in its fight once morest the Russian war of aggression. The NATO country has given its neighbor MiG fighter jets, among other things. In addition, Slovakia, with a population of around 5.5 million, took in more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The election, which began early on Saturday, 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 was a death at one of the polling stations in Povazska Bystrica in central Slovakia and health problems of a member of the electoral commission. According to the law, interruptions in voting must be compensated for by a corresponding extension of the voting time.
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