The Smer party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico is the winner of Slovakian elections, in a very negative turn of events for Ukraine.
Smer maintained a wide lead from the beginning of the counting, despite a fake exit poll predicting the narrow victory of the PS party.
With 97,57% counted, results show the Smer with 23,44%, and the centrist, EU friendly PS in second with 16,67%, ahead of a host of other parties.
The Spectator reported:
“Smer leader Robert Fico has received the most votes from people in the election, more than half a million. Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini and PS leader Michal Šimečka follow.
The Smer party is celebrating its victory in the 2023 election. The Denník N daily captured Smer leader and his colleagues as they sing a popular folk song, “Na Kráľovej Holi”. Smer people also shouted: ‘We won. This is how it should be done’.”
Slovakia sent Ukraine weapons, accommodated refugees and backed all sanctions on Russia, hurting its energy supplies.
Sandwiched between Hungary and Poland, Slovakia shares with its neighbors the distinction of being the 3 countries that have now enacted a ban against Ukrainian grain – but that now is expected to be followed by a serious curtailing of military and even political support for Ukraine.
Slovakia’s longest-serving prime minister, Fico was forced out of office in 2018, following the biggest mass protests Bratislava had seen since the communist era.
But now, the popular reaction against the war in Ukraine created a path back to power to Fico.
AP reported:
“The left-wing Hlas (Voice) party, led by Fico’s former deputy in Smer, Peter Pellegrini, was in third with 15.4%. Pellegrini parted ways with Fico after Smer lost the previous election in 2020, but their possible reunion would boost Fico’s chances to form a government.
‘It’s important for me that the new coalition would be formed by such parties that can agree on the priorities for Slovakia and ensure stability and calm’, Pellegrini said after voting in Bratislava.”
Wrong exit polls predicted PS victory.
Czech media managed to talk to Smer leader Robert Fico in front of Smer’s headquarters, ‘when he was leaving on a motorcycle’.
He said he had no idea how the election would turn out and that it was the least predictable election he had experienced, given the number of parties hovering around the electability threshold.
PS leader Michal Šimečka: “We will accept the results with responsibility and humility. We will comment on the results in the morning.”
But it soon became apparent Fico’s party was bound to win.
At 03:13am, Bratislava time (8:13pm ET), the Spectator called: Smer will be the winner of the 2023 election.
“Smer was registered in November 1999, and originally profiled as a third-way party. Later, it moved towards the left and started focusing on social democracy, gradually becoming a dominant player on the political spectrum’s left wing. In 2004, it merged with three other left-wing parties which were polling low levels of voter support.
Smer has been led by Robert Fico since its founding and it has had MPs in parliament since the 2002 election. The party has been part of three governments: in the years 2006-2010, 2012-2016 (a one-party government, garnering historically the highest vote share for a party in a parliamentary election – 44.41 percent of the vote), and 2016-2020.
Fico served as prime minister in all three governments, although he was forced to leave the post in 2018 after the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.”
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