Pro-Russian social democrat Robert Fico wins elections in Slovakia

The populist social democratic party Smer, of former pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico, has won the early general elections in Slovakia this Saturday, with a 23.3% of the votes.

The first estimates based on exit polls had initially given the possible winner to the pro-European progressive party PS, of the vice president of the European Parliament, Michal Simecka, who in the end obtained only 17.1% of the votes to be second.

The third party was the moderate social democrat Hlas, of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, a former ally of Fico, with 14.9%.

After a high participation of 68.51%, compared to 65.80% in the last elections, a total of seven parties enter the National Council (Parliament), including the nationalist SNS, with 5.6%, which was already part of coalitions with the social democrats in the past.

Social democracy, with a social message of defense of the citizen, harassed by high inflation, and also with a anti-immigration rhetoric and criticism of aid to Ukraineespecially on Smer's side, has permeated, and boosted his vote, which in the 2020 elections had achieved only 18%.

The formations on the left of the political spectrum, Fico's Smer and Pellegrini's Hlas, coreligionists for two decades, now account for 37% of the vote, and a third party, like SNS, would be enough to form a stable coalition.

In the case of Simecka's progressives, their natural coalition partners would be the liberals of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), who achieved 6.3% of the votes.

Other lists, such as the former governor OLaNo, with 8%, or the conservative KHD party, with 6.8%, could also join the PS, although analysts predict that this would be more complicated, making a stable coalition difficult.

The Smer was the dominant political force in the country until 2018, when the murder of an investigative journalist, who had denounced the relations between organized crime and the upper echelons of power, caused a wave of indignation, which ended up forcing Fico's resignation. .