According to two polls, the Progressive Slovakia Party (of the centrist and liberal European parliamentary group Renew Europe) is expected to win Saturday’s Slovak elections, ahead of the populist SMER, which has pledged to suspend aid to neighboring Ukraine.
Progressive Slovakia, led by Vice-President of the European Parliament Michal Simecka, received 23.5% in an exit poll by TV Markiza and 19.97% in a poll by public broadcaster RTVS.
The vote in the country of 5.4 million, a member of the EU and NATO, is seen as key to determining whether the country can maintain its pro-Western course or turn more towards Russia.
The campaign was characterized by a particularly large amount of disinformation on the internet.
SMER, owned by former Prime Minister Robert Fico, achieved 21.9% in the Markiza survey and 19.1% in the RTVS survey.
The final results are expected on Sunday. The winner of the election will need the help of smaller parties to form a majority coalition in the 150-seat parliament.
The new government will replace a center-right coalition in power since 2020, which has installed three cabinets and provided heavy military and humanitarian aid to war-hit Ukraine during that period.
During the heated election campaign, Fico attacked the EU, NATO and LGBTQ people and rejected further military aid to Ukraine.
Simecka urged Slovaks to “choose the future” and promised to rid Slovakia of the “past”, referring to Fico’s three terms as prime minister. Simecka, who vowed to continue helping Ukraine, said as he cast his vote in Bratislava that he would “accept the election results with humility.”
“It is very good that there are a large number of people in Slovakia who want a decent European future for their country and their families,” he added.
Eliska Spisakova, who voted for SMER in Bratislava, said the party was “the natural choice for the working poor” like herself. “Progressive Slovakia is not interested in people, only gays, the legalization of drugs, Ukrainians and immigrants,” the 29-year-old bailiff told AFP after his vote.
Independent political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov told AFP that the vote will determine Slovakia’s focus “on foreign policy, defense and security policy, but also on the future of democracy.”
Slovakia became an independent country in 1993 following a peaceful secession from the Czech Republic, after Czechoslovakia gave up 40 years of totalitarian communist rule in 1989.
Although many Slovaks had experience with the Moscow-led communist regime, many voted for populists who promised to stop helping Ukraine.
A survey by think tank Globsec found that the majority of Slovaks believe in conspiracy theories and that the amount of disinformation, including from sources linked to the Kremlin, increased during the campaign.
“There are people who think that peace can be achieved by suspending all aid to Ukraine, and I do not agree with that,” Slovak President Zuzana Caputová told AFP.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Slovakia “for its support to Ukraine,” in a message published on Telegram on election day.
Exit polls showed that five to seven parties – and a coalition of three parties – would win parliamentary seats.
Hlas, led by former vice-president and SMER dissident Peter Pellegrini, will be a sought-after ally after coming third in both exit polls, with 12.2% and 11.2%. Pellegrini became prime minister in 2018, after Fico was forced to resign amid nationwide protests following the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée. Kuciak exposed the links between the Italian mafia and Fico’s government in his final article published posthumously.
Simecka may want to seduce the centrist OLaNO, which leads a three-party coalition with 8% and 9.5%, and the right-wing SaS party with 6.4% in both polls. Both OLaNO and SaS were part of the government appointed in 2020.
Fico could also court the newly formed far-right Republic, which polls predicted would get 6% and 6.1%, and possibly also the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), which got 5.4% in an exit poll .
The centrist Christian Democrats (KDH) are expected to get between 5.4% and 6.3%.
Source: DN
