Slovak Republic - Parliamentary elections - 2023
The Slovak Republic is a multiparty parliamentary democracy led by a prime minister and a 150-member parliament (Narodna Rada or National Council). Slovakia had been governed by a technocratic government since mid-May after the early demise of a chaotic, centre-right coalition. Following a December 15 no-confidence vote, Prime Minister Eduard Heger headed a provisional government until elections scheduled for September 30, 2023 occur. Twenty-four political parties or movements and one coalition submitted slates for the snap election due to be held on September 30. Over 2,700 candidates were running in the election.
A study by Globsec conducted early in 2023 noted that 69 percent of Slovak respondents agreed that, by providing military equipment to Ukraine, Slovakia is provoking Russia and bringing itself closer to war. Only 58 percent would vote to stay in NATO. The positive sentiment toward Russia in segments of Slovak society comes from various sources: nostalgia for the country's communist past; disappointment with life in the European Union; and also for historical reasons, such as attempts to create a separate Slovak national identity in the multicultural 19th-century Habsburg empire that was linked to Russia through pan-Slavism. Since 2018, the country has seen five different prime ministers. That year also saw the biggest street protests since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova. Fico resigned and his political ally Peter Pellegrini took over, only to split from Smer to form his own center-left party called Voice. Powered by general discontent among the population, the center-right, antiestablishment Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) movement stormed into first place in the 2020 general elections with 25 percent of the vote. They ran primarily on an anti-corruption ticket and formed a coalition government with a motley crew of parties including libertarians, nationalists, and Christian democrats. The new government, led by Igor Matovic, was stung by criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and then the soaring energy prices and double-digit inflation that followed the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The coalition government was also blighted by constant infighting, which eventually led to Matovic stepping aside in favor of his deputy, Eduard Heger, in 2021. One of the coalition partners, the liberal Freedom and Solidary party (SASKA), then quit the ruling coalition, leading to the downfall of the Heger government through a no-confidence vote. That paved the way for the upcoming elections and the current caretaker government led by technocrat Ludovit Odor. The country may bring a populist conservative Smer-Social Democracy to power. If Smer-Social Democracy wins in Slovakia, this would strengthen the populist, illiberal trend in Central Europe and erode post-communist democratisation in the region. Worse still, it could affect the European Union’s common foreign policy towards Ukraine, weakening support for Kyiv.
Since September 2022, three of the four parties that secured a majority in parliament following free and fair parliamentary elections in 2020 had made up the ruling coalition. The 2020 election produced the most conservative parliament in Slovakia’s 30-year history. In 2019 voters elected Zuzana Caputova to a five-year term as president and head of state in free and fair elections.
The National Council (parliament) is elected for four years and has 150 members. In line with the law and the political agreement to have early parliamentary elections, on 09 June 2023, the Speaker of Parliament formally set the election day for 30 September. Although the president is a woman, in general women are underrepresented in political life, with only 21 per cent of MPs in the outgoing parliament and only three out of sixteen cabinet ministers in the last politically appointed government.
Following the 2020 parliamentary elections, the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) won the most seats (53), followed by Direction – Social Democrats (SMER-SD, 38 seats), We are Family (17 seats), People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS, 17 seats), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS, 13 seats) and For the People (12 seats). Subsequently, OLaNO formed the government with the support of We are Family, SaS and For the People. Following the government reshuffle in March 2021 and disagreements within the ruling coalition in September 2022 that led to a loss of majority support, the government received a vote of no confidence in December 2022 and continued to function with a limited mandate.
On 7 May 2023, the prime minister resigned, and the government was dissolved after the president refused to accept new cabinet proposals. In accordance with the law, the President appointed on 15 May a caretaker government, which later on received a vote of no confidence in the parliament.
The parliament is elected under a proportional system in a single nationwide constituency. Voters choose a party or coalition’s list of candidates. Voters may express preferential vote for up to four candidates on the chosen list. Parties receiving more than five per cent of valid votes participate in the distribution of seats. The threshold for coalitions of two or three parties is seven per cent, and ten per cent for coalitions of four or more parties.
The seats are allocated proportionally to parties or coalitions that pass the threshold by dividing the number of votes cast for a list by the value of the electoral quota.5 Any unallocated seats are distributed using the largest reminders. Candidates that receive more than three per cent of preferential votes get preference in the allocation of seats. The remaining seats won by the list are allocated to candidates according to the initial list order.
The media environment is pluralistic and diverse, with various broadcasters and online and print media. Freedom of expression is generally protected, but high damages in civil defamation cases and the criminalization of defamation remain unaddressed. Some ODIHR NAM interlocutors expressed concerns about the safe environment for journalists' work due to threats of violence coming, among others, from politicians. Television remains the most popular source of political information, followed by radio and online media portals and social networks. The regulatory framework was significantly updated in 2022 to strengthen the protection of journalists, increase transparency to media ownership and funding, and envisage the application of self-regulatory mechanisms, among other changes.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: high-level corruption; violence and threats of violence against Roma and members of other ethnic and racial minorities; and violence and threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons. Politicians, public officials, or persons seeking elected office rarely identified openly as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+).
An 19-year-old Bratislava grammar school student shot two people dead on Zámocká Street in central Bratislava on 12 October 2022 outside a well-known gay bar. The public reacted strongly to the killings, with an estimated 15,000-20,000 people marching from Tepláren to one of the Bratislava squares two days after the attack to condemn hate against the LGBT+ community in Slovakia, a rather conservative EU country with a strong presence of the Roman Catholic Church. President Zuzana Caputová echoed many in the LGBT+ community when she said that the hate crime was the result of animosity that had been “fuelled for a long time by the stupid and irresponsible statements of politicians”.
Slovakia’s political structures have always been negative or, at best, indifferent to the situation of the LGBT+ community. As a result, Slovakia is one of the few remaining EU member states that does not legally recognise same-sex partnerships. Derogatory statements about LGBT+ people were in the past repeated by politicians across the political spectrum, including former prime ministers Robert Fico and Igor Matovic.
During a Sunday political show on private television network Markíza, on 03 September 2023 KDH (Christian Democratic Movement) head Milan Majerský called 'LGBTI' a 'plague that destroys any given country', placing it on a par with corruption and saying that both are unfortunate circumstances for countries. KDH had sternly opposed registered partnerships on many occasions in the past. The Catholic Church and its members have been blamed for spreading hate against the community.
Campaign topics expected to feature prominently in the campaign include state policies related to the war caused by the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, relations with the EU and NATO, immigration, good governance, and the fight against corruption. Many interlocutors raised concerns about campaign strategy of some political party representatives aimed at creating a perception of elections being falsified, without providing any evidence, and warned that this has already resulted in the distrust of a significant number of voters in the results of elections.
In an August 2023 survey by the Focus polling agency for private television network Markíza, former prime minister Peter Pellegrini and currently head of the extra-parliamentary Hlas party, was considered the most trusted political leader in Slovakia. He enjoyed the confidence of 40 percent of people as opposed to 59 percent of those who distrust him. Cítajte viac: https://spectator.sme.sk/c/23212249/poll-slovak-politicians-trust-august.html The second most trusted politician is opposition Smer chair and former three-time prime minister Robert Fico, who enjoys the confidence of 37 percent of people (as opposed by 62 percent who do not trust him), closely followed by President Zuzana Caputová with 36 percent.
Less than four weeks before Slovaks go to the polls to elect a new parliament, the election was being overshadowed by a scandal within the country's police and intelligence community. Things came to a head on 18 August 2023, when Slovak police took the chief of the counter-intelligence service SIS, Michal Alac, into custody for 48 hours, just a day after announcing that charges were being brought against him. Although Alac was released two days later, he will face prosecution. The National Crime Agency suspected him of being involved in a criminal conspiracy within the security forces that manipulated corruption investigations into high-profile politicians and other current or former state figures. President Zuzana Caputova subsequently fired him on the government's recommendation.
Alac is not the only high-ranking intelligence figure accused of abuse of power and criminal conspiracy. So, too, are his predecessor, Vladimir Pcolinsky, and five other police and intelligence officers. The case is highly relevant to Slovakia's election on September 30 because Alac and Pcolinsky are accused of trying to discredit investigators involved in major political corruption investigations into past governments led by the Smer-SD party and its leader, Robert Fico. Both former three-time PM Robert Fico and former Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (both of Smer) were accused in April 2022 of establishing and supporting criminal groups within state structures.
However, Prosecutor General Maros Zilinka canceled the investigations into both politicians last November, justifying his decision with the controversial Paragraph 363 of the penal code, which allows the prosecutor general to stop any investigation in the country simply by declaring it unreasonable.
Fico is running for reelection, and his party, Smer, was ahead in the polls. The latest statistics show Smer as the strongest party, with about 20% of the vote. Progressive Slovakia, the second strongest party, was polling between 15 and 17%. OLaNO's fall from grace has been so spectacular that it looks like the party won't even clear the 7 percent electoral threshold for two- or three-party alliances (the threshold is 5 percent for single parties). Fico's rhetoric has changed to the point where he's now very close to [Hungary's Prime Minister] Viktor Orban, and that will probably not change much even though Fico during a campaign is different from Fico as prime minister.
Smer’s leader Robert Fico is Slovakia’s longest serving prime minister, having held the prime ministerial seat three times. During his previous terms, the democratic development of the country was repeatedly sabotaged. Fico’s previous governments have been accused of interfering with the independence and integrity of the judiciary and the prosecution. During his tenure, several judges, prosecutors and other officials were alleged to have been involved in bribery, abuse of power and collusion with organised criminal groups. Fico and his party often attacked and intimidated journalists who criticised their policies or exposed their wrongdoing. He and his political allies also promoted discrimination against minorities and migrants.
"Let's forget about the war within the police and speak very clearly here," he said in a media statement on August 17, when the charges against Alac and the others were made public. "Representatives of the government, the president and the progressive part of the political spectrum in Slovakia are trying to gain control of all state forces." He called the arrest of the SIS chief a "police coup" and an attempt to manipulate the elections. According to Fico, parties on the other side of the political spectrum are trying to smear him and Smer.
Robert Fico is a controversial figure in Slovak politics. Not only is his name still connected to the country's biggest corruption cases, but he is also known for his pro-Russian rhetoric. Fico disagrees with providing military aid to Ukraine and says that Slovakia should seek to have good relationships with both Russia and America. He has also accused his political rivals of being American agents and "Soros-paid puppets."
It was commonly believed that the 2018 killings of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee and the serious criminal charges brought against many high-profile former members of Fico’s cabinet relating to establishing and leading criminal groups, abuse of public office, and corruption, sealed the prime minister’s political fate.
But he made a comeback last year, launching a particularly crude and tasteless public campaign to boost his popularity. For example, just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Fico criticised NATO’s military presence in Slovakia, riding on a wave of pro-Russian sentiment. He also attacked the Slovak President, Zuzana Caputová, labelling her a “US agent” to score political points with his anti-establishment constituency.
Fico built his electoral campaign on spreading false pro-Kremlin narratives about the war in Ukraine. He has called Ukrainians “fascists” and ruled out any potential NATO membership for Ukraine, saying that the country should remain a “buffer between Russia and NATO”. He has threatened to withdraw Slovak government support for Kyiv and called the EU “suicidal” for slapping sanctions on Russia.
A return to power for Fico would not bode well for Slovak democracy. Another premiership for him would entrench the misuse of public resources to reward political supporters and maintain power. It would promote nepotism and corruption, including within the judiciary, which would lead to further erosion of public trust in state institutions and the legal system. Clientelism and institutional favouring of certain oligarchs, which was pervasive during Fico’s previous terms, would limit economic opportunities for others, and worsen the already significant problem of brain drain, with much-needed structural reforms taking a back seat altogether.
The large opposition party Smer, led by ex-Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico, can win the parliamentary elections with 18% of the vote, according to a survey conducted by the Focus agency, commissioned by the Slovak TV channel Markiza. A total of 25 political associations were allowed to participate in them: 24 parties and one coalition. To enter parliament, parties need to get at least 5% of the votes, coalitions - at least 7%. According to polls, Fico's party was the favorite in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Slovakia. According to the latest survey conducted by the Focus agency, 18% of voters can vote for the Smer party, 16.6% for the Progresivne Slovensko party, and 13.7% can vote for the Hlas party, which is headed by ex-Prime Minister of the Republic Peter Pellegrini. In total, eight parties have a chance to get into the Slovak parliament.
The Slovak army is in a deplorable state after sending weapons to Ukraine, said the head of the opposition party Smer, former Prime Minister of the Republic Robert Fico in an interview with pravda.sk. “After everything that the governments of Matovic , Heger and Caputova sent to Ukraine, our army is in a deplorable state. We have no combat aircraft, no air defense system, and not enough ammunition,” the politician said. According to Fico, if his party wins the parliamentary elections and is able to form a government, military assistance to Kiev from Bratislava will stop.
In April 2022, Slovakia transferred the S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, and a year later - MiG-29 fighters . Fico claimed that the deliveries were carried out in gross violation of the constitution of the republic. He also criticized the current authorities for transferring the working air defense. On the campaign trail, Fico had ruled out more Slovak arms deliveries to its eastern neighbor, dismissed further EU sanctions on Russia, questioned the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO, and parroted Kremlin narratives that NATO caused the war and that it began after "Ukrainian Nazis and fascists started to murder Russian citizens in Donbas and Luhansk." Fico's positions on many of these issues are close to those of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and, according to Dominka Hajdu from the Bratislava-based think tank Globsec: "This has the potential to further crumble EU and NATO unity when it comes to the overall support for Ukraine, because in addition to Hungary, there would be another country in Central Europe which would question and perhaps counter some of the decisions supporting Ukraine." Smer looked set to finish first with around 22 percent of the vote (it got 18 percent in 2020), which would leave the party holding some 40 seats in parliament. With 76 seats needed to form a majority, coalition partners will be needed. The far-right Republika party, which is currently polling around 8 percent, is widely thought to be too extreme and unpalatable to govern with, but there are a few other nationalist parties with similarly soft stances on Moscow that Smer could team up with.
Progressive Slovakia's leader, Michal Simecka, is one of the vice presidents of the European Parliament and the grandson of the famous Czechoslovak communist dissident Milan Simecka. The main issue would be whether Simecka could form a viable coalition. Here, the ultimate kingmaker appears to be the Voice party -- currently polling in third just behind Progressive Slovakia -- and its leader Pellegrini. Milder on issues related to Ukraine, Grigorij Meseznikov, the president of the Slovak-based Institute for Public Affairs (IVO,) calls Voice "the human face of Smer." With most of its current members coming from Fico's party, Meseznikov notes that while Pellegrini and Fico "have really quite bad personal relations," Pellegrini's "position in the party could be shaky if the majority of party members after the elections will [look favorably on a] coalition with Smer."
Slovakian authorities released the official results of the elections on 01 October 2023, showing that Smer attracted the largest number of votes, 22.94%, with the Progressive Slovakia party (17.96%) and Voice – Social Democracy party (14.7%) emerging as the first and second runners-up respectively. Fico, a vocal critic of Bratislava’s generous donations of military hardware to Kiev, had previously promised to stop sending “any arms or ammunition to Ukraine” if his party became part of the new government. Fico will likely try to improve Slovakia’s relations with Russia, seeing how another Eastern European nation, Hungary, has effectively demonstrated that it is possible to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia despite “Brussels’ lamentations.”
Smer, or Direction, party captured 22.9% of the vote. The party's leader, populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico, needed to find coalition partners to rule with a majority in the country's 150-seat Parliament. The memorandum signed Wednesday provides for a coalition of Smer, which holds 42 seats; the left-wing Hlas, or Voice, party, which placed third in the election and has 27 seats; and the ultra-nationalist and pro-Russia Slovak National Party, which has 10 lawmakers in the new parliament. Fico's former deputy in Smer, Peter Pellegrini, is the leader of Hlas. Pellegrini parted ways with Fico after the scandal-tainted Smer lost the previous election in 2020. Their reunion was a key to Fico’s ability to form a government.
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