The outcome of Saturday’s
vote was being watched closely in Brussels, with Slovakia due to take
over the rotating presidency of the EU in July.
Robert
Fico wins Slovakian election, but loses majority: exit polls
Prime
minister’s party at 27.3 percent, while ultra far-right People’s
Party Our Slovakia likely to enter parliament for first time.
By VINCE CHADWICK
AND BENJAMIN CUNNINGHAM 3/5/16, 10:44 PM CET Updated 3/5/16, 11:13 PM
CET
Slovakian Prime
Minister Robert Fico won parliamentary elections Saturday, though he
will likely be forced to govern in a coalition after a stronger than
expected showing by minor parties, including those on the far right,
according to exit polls.
Figures from the
Markiza television network, released after polls closed at 10 p.m.,
gave Fico’s center-left Direction-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party
27.3 percent of the vote, ahead of the center-right Freedom and
Solidarity (SaS) at 13.3 percent, Ordinary People and Independent
Personalities (OL’aNO) at 11.2, and the far-right Slovak National
Party (SNS) with 8 percent. The ultra far-right People’s Party Our
Slovakia (LSNS) was at 6.8 percent, and is also likely to feature in
parliament for the first time.
The Network (Siet’)
party did worse than expected on 6.7 percent, but so did Smer, which
had polled as high as 34 percent in an opinion poll on February 18.
Arriving at party
headquarters, Fico told reporters the result was “a big mishmash
and a huge number of political parties in parliament,” AFP
reported.
The result is also
well below the 44 percent Fico’s party won in 2012, which allowed
it to govern in the 150-seat National Council without a coalition
partner. That is now almost certain to change, with official results
to be posted throughout the evening by the national statistics
office.
Should he form a
government it would be Fico’s third term as prime minister, after
leading the nation of 5.4 million from 2006 to 2010 and again since
2012.
The 51-year-old is
known for populist policies, including free train travel for students
and pensioners, and six weeks ago his government sent checks for up
to €165 to every household as a gas rebate.
But the campaign
tightened in recent weeks with a focus on labor disputes with nurses
and teachers, concerns about the health care system, and corruption
allegations leveled at two senior government ministers.
Training exercise:
Slovak army and police forces 'detain' a man playing the role of an
illegal migrant during a joint practice exercise at the border near
Bratislava
The main threat to
Smer is now a center-right coalition, with Slovakia’s many minor
parties performing strongly compared with the 2012 election when none
scored above 10 percent.
Fico’s campaign
focused on migration, despite the country receiving nowhere near the
amount of asylum-seekers that have moved through Slovakia’s
southern neighbor, and partner in the Visegrád group, Hungary.
“The natural
integration of people who have another way of life, way of thinking,
cultural background and most of all religion, is not possible,”
Fico said in January.
Slovakia refused to
take any refugees under the EU’s relocation scheme, and has
challenged the qualified-majority voting procedure used to decide it
at the European Court of Justice.
Eighty-nine percent
of Slovaks oppose the relocation scheme, according to one poll, and
the tough line on refugees was mostly backed by opposition parties in
the campaign.
The outcome of
Saturday’s vote was being watched closely in Brussels, with
Slovakia due to take over the rotating presidency of the EU in July.
The final result is
expected to be confirmed Sunday.
Authors:
Vince Chadwick and
Benjamin Cunningham
.webp)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário