Slovak MEP Michal Simecka, 39, one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament, leads a poll released by TV Markíza almost an hour after the vote, which pits him against Roberto Fico, the former head of government. Before the election, opinion polls indicated a technical tie, so the Progressive Slovakia Party could only have been happy with the 23.5% of votes this poll gave it.
Close behind, with 21.9%, comes the nationalist Fico’s Smer party, which ran a campaign dominated by pro-Russian discourse and marked by anti-LGBTQI rhetoric.
But as expected, the first data from this Saturday’s legislative elections in Slovakia did not allow for a clear picture of the future of governance in the small EU country of 5.5 million people and 4.4 million voters. In third place, far from the other parties, is the Hlas party, a splinter group from Smar led by former prime minister Peter Pellegrini.
Although Hlas is a more moderate and pro-European party, it is considered too close to Smr to be a coalition option for Michal Simeka.
A fragmented parliament is expected, with six debutant parties and several former government leaders in the running. The exit polls showed at least three organizations at or below 5% of the polls.
One of the parties that could prove fundamental is the Slovak National Party, he told the British newspaper Guardian Milan Nick, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, was among those at precisely 5%. “His 9-10 mandates will change the parliamentary arithmetic in Fico’s favour,” he explained.
Before the vote, progressive Slovakia, pro-EU and pro-NATO, pledged continued aid to Ukraine, improved health and education systems and an end to the brain drain. But this is toxic propaganda.
Vieira Zuborova, an analyst and director of the Bratislava Institute of Politics, said it was the “most violent” campaign she had ever seen: “The amount of hate speech, fake news and disinformation is huge,” she told the Spanish newspaper. El Pies.
Former Prime Minister Igor Matovic (2020-2021) appeared at a summer press conference with a van with loudspeakers and shouted “mafioso” and exchanged punches with former Fico foreign minister Robert Kalinak.
With four prime ministers in five years, Slovakia reached these elections in December after a resolution of condemnation against the center-right coalition and the resignation in May of Prime Minister Eduard Heger (until then interim head of government). The reality is that since 2020, with Figo’s exit, there have been crises, fueled by civil strife and the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Fico led three governments until he was forced to resign in 2020 in the face of major protests over the murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kuznirova two years ago – the couple were investigating corruption cases linked to Fico. and its administrator.
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