With a social message in defense of citizens, plagued by high inflation, as well as anti-immigration rhetoric and criticism of aid to Ukraine, he won 23.3% of the vote.
The populist Social Democratic Party Smer, led by former pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico, won Slovakia’s early general elections on Saturday with a 23.3% of the votes.
Initial estimates based on exit polls had initially listed the pro-European progressive party PS, of European Parliament Vice President Michal Simecka, as a possible winner, which ultimately received only 17.1% of the vote to come second .
The third party was the moderate social democrat Hlas, of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, a former ally of Fico, with 14.9%.
After a high participation of 68.51%, compared to 65.80% in the last elections, a total of seven parties enter the National Council (Parliament), including the nationalist SNS, with 5.6%, which has already been part of in the past coalitions with the social democrats.
Social democracy, with a social message in defense of the citizen, plagued by high inflation, and also with a anti-immigration rhetoric and criticism of aid to Ukraineespecially on Smer’s side, has made inroads and increased his vote base, which had reached only 18% in the 2020 elections.
The formations on the left of the political spectrum, Fico’s Smer and Pellegrini’s La Voz, co-religionists for twenty years, now account for 37% of the votes, and a third party, such as SNS, would be sufficient to create a stable coalition forms.
In the case of Simecka’s progressives, their natural coalition partners would be the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) liberals, who won 6.3% of the vote.
Other lists, such as former governor OLaNo, with 8%, or the conservative KHD party, with 6.8%, could also join the PS, although analysts predict this would be more complicated, making a stable coalition difficult .
The Smer was the dominant political force in the country until 2018, when the murder of an investigative journalist who had exposed relations between organized crime and higher power groups sparked a wave of outrage that ultimately led to Fico’s resignation necessitated.
Source: EITB
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