(29 Feb 2020) Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini casted his ballot in Banska Bystrica as the central European country headed to the polls on Saturday morning.
The parliamentary elections are widely expected to unseat Smer-Social Democracy, the long dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party that governed on an anti-immigration platform.
According to the latest polls, a coalition of several centre-right parties is emerging as a favorite to win Saturday’s ballot and form a new government for Slovakia.
The center-right Ordinary People, led by Igor Matovic, is the front-runner, followed by Smer-Social Democracy, led by populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Matovic, 46, has made fighting corruption and attacking Fico the central tenet of his campaign.
An anti-corruption drive has been in the party's program since he established it 10 years ago. He is ahead in opinion polls with some 19%.
If he wins as predicted, Matovic is the likeliest candidate for prime minister.
He is expected to govern with a coalition of the liberal Progressive Slovakia/Together, the conservative For People established by former President Andrej Kiska, and the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party.
Fico’s Smer has been in power for most of the past 14 years.
It gained 28.3% in the last elections in 2016 after campaigning on an anti-migrant ticket.
But the party was damaged by political turmoil following the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée and is expected to receive around 15%.
Fico’s current coalition partners, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, might not win any seats, polls suggest.
An extreme far-right party whose members use Nazi salutes and which wants Slovakia out of the European Union and NATO is forecast to strengthen its hold in the 150-seat parliament, to become the third most popular party in the country of just under 5.5 million.
The far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia won 8% and 14 seats in Parliament in 2016 and this time might get about 10%.
All other parties have ruled out cooperation with the party that advocates the legacy of the Slovak Nazi puppet WWII state.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
