Slovakia: Fico’s left-wing nationalist Smer wins parliamentary elections Conflict comes to a head: Kosovo says Serbian army is coming from three directions

Contrary to initial predictions, the left-nationalist Social Democrats of former long-term government leader Robert Fico have won the parliamentary elections in Slovakia. After nearly 99 percent of constituencies were counted, the opposition party ‘Towards Slovak Social Democracy’ (Smer-SSD) received 23.3 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results from the State Election Commission in Bratislava early Sunday morning. This meant that Fico’s party was unassailably ahead of the liberal party “Progressive Slovakia” (PS).

The Liberal Party, which is not even represented in parliament, was in second place with 17 percent. The turnout for the elections was provisionally 68 percent. Two post-election surveys published by TV stations on Saturday evening showed PS narrowly ahead of Smer-SSD.

However, it will not be easy for Fico’s Smer party to form a coalition with a sufficient majority. Fico had announced before the elections that he wanted to end arms aid, which was unpopular with the population, and only help Ukraine with civilian goods if he returned to power. Almost all other parties elected to parliament want to adhere to this. The EU and NATO country Slovakia borders directly on Ukraine and has so far been one of the most determined political and military supporters of the Russian-attacked neighboring country.

Fico was head of government from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 and led Slovakia to the Schengen area in 2007 and to the eurozone in 2009. After the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in 2018, the investigation uncovered major corruption networks that also involved high-ranking state officials. Fico was forced to resign under pressure from mass protests.

Above all, Smer needs as partners the more liberal Social Democrats who split from her under former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who won 15 percent. This party, called “Voice – Social Democracy” (Hlas-SD), is a possible coalition partner for both Smer-SSD and PS.

Just like Smer-SSD, Hlas-SD also advocates a strong welfare state. Unlike Fico, Pellegrini is in favor of further military aid to Ukraine. In addition to these three strongest, three small parties in favor of arms aid to Ukraine, as well as the pro-Russian Slovak National Party SNS, entered parliament.

PS boss Michal Simecka was extremely cautious after the two predictions were published. The results are hopeful, he told the TASR news agency. However, his party still painfully remembers that the election results for his party in the last elections were worse than forecasts. In the 2020 parliamentary elections, the PS, which formed an electoral alliance with another liberal party, narrowly missed the hurdle to entering parliament. There is a five percent threshold for individual parties, but an electoral alliance must exceed seven percent.

The elections, which started on Saturday morning, ended late in the evening. Instead of 10 p.m. as planned, the last polling stations closed 45 minutes later. The reason for this was problems at individual polling stations where members of the election committee had health problems. According to the law, interruptions in voting must be compensated by a corresponding extension of voting time. (cst/sda/dpa)