Slovakia heading to the polls in 2023?
-
Loading... - Klara Kubis
- 09 Feb 2023
- 69 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
In Slovakia, the right-of-centre minority government of Prime Minister and European Council member Eduard Heger was brought down by a vote of no confidence on 15 December, meaning a snap election in the spring or fall of 2023 seems increasingly likely. Current polls suggest a tectonic shift for the highly fragmented party system if these were to happen.
Recent polls suggest Heger’s centre-right OĽaNO party (EPP) would face a devastating result, dropping from 25.0% in the February 2020 election to only about 7.5%. As the strongest OĽaNO is likely to be replaced by the centre-left HLAS–SD party of former prime minister Peter Pellegrini, which would win 20% in its first election. HLAS–SD is an associate member of the European Party of European Socialists (PES).
HLAS–SD split in mid-2020 from another PES member, SMER-SD, in opposition to its former leader and prime minister Robert Fico. Fico, a controversial figure, in 2016, associated refugees and Muslims with terrorism, claiming that “thousands of terrorists and Islamic State fighters are entering Europe with migrants.” Fico’s SMER-SD is now trailing behind HLAS-SD at about 16%, down from 18% in 2020. Read More…
