Oppositional progressive Slovakia triumphs in tight European elections
Oppositional Progressive Slovakia (PS) has won the European Parliament elections and will have six MEPs. It defeated the strongest party of the ruling coalition, Direction – Slovak Social Democracy (Smer-SSD), led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, which secured five mandates.
Progressive Slovakia defeated its biggest rival by 3 percentage points, while polls had indicated a narrow victory for Prime Minister Robert Fico's party, who was injured in an attack on 15 May. The results may deepen the significant differences within Slovak society. For the Prime Minister's party, securing five mandates means the politicians currently holding various government or parliamentary positions must have these posts filled afresh.
Smer will also face another very important problem, as the European Socialists group has frozen Prime Minister Fico's party membership. Allegations were raised regarding the rule of law and entering a government alliance with the extreme Slovak National Party (SNS).
Smer conceded defeat and congratulated PS on their victory even before the official election results were published but stressed that the majority of Slovak mandates were won by "representatives of national and conservative forces," which – according to Smer – is a signal to Brussels to change EU policy.
This referenced the success of the extreme and populist but non-parliamentary party Republic. It came in third in the elections, and two MEPs will represent it in the European Parliament. The leader of the Republic is Milan Uhrik, who, in the previous European Parliament elections, won a mandate under the banner of the People's Party Our Slovakia, led by Marian Kotleba, who has been convicted of promoting and spreading Nazism.
In 2019, Slovakia filled 14 mandates in the European Parliament. In the new term, they have 15. The remaining two will be shared between the co-ruling party Voice Social Democracy (Hlas SD) and the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH). Hlas, founded by president-elect Peter Pellegrini, hoped for a better result but had to settle for fourth place in the European Parliament elections after Republic.
