According to the exit poll, the liberals are in the lead in the Slovakian election.
According to an exit poll, Progressive Slovakia, a liberal and Western-influenced party, was in the lead in Slovakia’s election on Saturday. The leftist-populist party Smer followed closely behind.
According to the exit poll conducted by Focus agency and TV station Markíza at 10:45 p.m. CET, Progressive Slovakia, led by ex-journalist and Oxford alumnus Michal Šimečka, received 23.5% of the vote, while Smer, led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico, received 21.9%.
According to political tradition in Slovakia, the leading candidate has the initial opportunity to create a majority in the 150-seat parliament.
Given the deep division in the country, Šimečka’s position as the potential first-term prime minister is strengthened by this rule. However, he will need to secure the support of conservative allies in Slovakia who are willing to collaborate with him and his LGBT+ agenda in order to form a coalition.
The upcoming Saturday election in Slovakia is crucial for the country’s future. Fico has pledged to end the export of weapons to Ukraine, prevent Kyiv from joining NATO, and retrieve funds from banks with large sums of money.
Fico, who is known for his support of Moscow, spoke at a pre-election rally in his hometown of Topoľčany on August 30th and stated that the conflict in Ukraine began in 2014 when Ukrainian nationalists and fascists began killing Russian civilians in the regions of Donbas and Luhansk.
Šimečka, meanwhile, told a crowd at Progressive Slovakia headquarters that his party’s voters “want a dignified European future for their families and their nation, a future where we can invest in our teachers and our schools, our health care professionals and our hospitals.”
Possible partners for Šimečka’s party include OĽaNO, which received 8 percent in the exit poll, the liberal party Sloboda a solidarita (Freedom and Solidarity) with 6.4 percent, and the Christian Democrats with 5.3 percent. If they were to join forces with Progressive Slovakia, they would have a combined total of 43.2 percent of the vote, resulting in 85 seats and a majority of 10 seats.
Smer’s natural partners, meanwhile, include the social democrats of Hlas (Voice), a 2021 breakaway from Fico’s party, which will be disappointed with its 12.2 percent third-place result. Other possibilities include the far-right Republika, with 6 percent.
None of the other parties obtained a percentage higher than 5% in the exit poll, which is the minimum requirement for representation in parliament.
The inability of the SNS nationalists to surpass the 5 percent threshold, with only 4.4 percent of the vote, could potentially lead to Fico’s unsuccessful attempt at securing another term as prime minister.
