The party of former pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico has won the elections in Slovakia, held on Saturday, according to the complete count released this Sunday. Smer-SSD, Fico's populist social democratic formation, garnered 23.3% of the votes compared to 17.1% received by its main rival, the pro-European Progressive Slovakia (PS) party of Michal Simecka, one of the vice-presidents of Parliament. European.
The third party in votes was the moderate social democrat Hlas-SD, of also former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, Fico's former party partner, with 15%. Pellegrini will become key to a government formation that is announced to be laborious in negotiations, because seven parties have exceeded the 5% threshold necessary to have representation in the 150-seat Parliament, so the future government must include at least three matches.
During his years in the opposition, Robert Fico has become more pro-Russian and anti-Western, raising concerns in Europe and among allies. Bratislava has provided considerable military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, but Robert Fico campaigned on an end to Slovak military support for Ukraine and the need to mend ties with Russia.
His return to power will align Slovakia with neighboring Hungary, where ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán exhibits similar positions regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and maintains constant tension with Brussels over issues ranging from the health of the rule of law to national regulations. of the EU.
Robert Fico, who already governed for two periods (2006-2010 and 2012-2018), was forced to resign as prime minister in March 2018, in the face of popular outrage over the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina. Kusnirová, both 27 years old. Thousands of protesters in the streets protested the focus on the investigation into the murders that was underway and demanded the resignation of the Government, due to negligence in the case and previous suspicions of corruption.
Peter Pellegrini, leader of Hlas-SD, seemed very satisfied last night. “The results so far show that Hlas will be a party without which it will be impossible to form any kind of normal and functional coalition government,” he warned.
