A political earthquake in Slovakia

The parliamentary election in Slovakia on 5 March 2016 brought an end to the majority rule of the the left-wing Smer-SD government and marked the beginning of a period of political instability. Prime Minister Robert Fico’s party garnered the highest support with 28% of the votes and obtained 49 of the 150 seats in the National Council (Slovak parliament). However, it needed at least two coalition partners in order to form a majority. The centre-right groupings (chief among these is the liberal party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) led by Richard Sulík, which did best in the recent election) have equal chances of forming a government coalition. In the case of a deadlock, it would also be possible to form a technical cabinet who could rule the country until a snap election to be held while Slovakia is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union (second half of 2016).

Eight groupings made it to parliament. Three of these groupings had no representation in the previous parliament: the statist Slovak National Party (SNS), the anti-system radical right People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽS-NS), and the newly-established anti-establishment grouping We Are Family. In turn, the two Christian Democratic parties, KDH and SDKÚ-DS, which were the co-authors of the Slovak reform programme implemented after the fall of Vladimír Mečiar’s rule, were no longer present in parliament. The extremists from ĽS-NS would most likely be kept on the margins of the political scene, but their presence in parliament reduced the opportunity of finding a stable parliamentary majority.

ESO: Background information: Slovak parliamentary election, 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/slovak-parliamentary-election-2016/

ESO: Background information: Robert Fico wins Slovakian election, but loses majority http://www.europeansources.info/record/robert-fico-wins-slovakian-election-but-loses-majority-slovakias-president-swears-in-contentious-coalition-government/

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