Slovakia. The not-so-bad man wins

Date: 24/04/04

An upset winner of Slovakia's presidency

PERHAPS chastened by the mess they made in a first round of voting for a new president on April 3rd, most Slovaks stayed away from the second round on April 17th. The run-off pitted Vladimir Meciar, a ham-fisted ex-prime minister whose authoritarian style set Slovakia back half a decade in the 1990s, against Ivan Gasparovic, who was then Mr Meciar's right-hand man but later fell out with him. In the event, Mr Gasparovic unexpectedly won, with 60% of the votes cast, on a turnout of just 43.5%. His victory came not so much because he campaigned brilliantly, but more because Mr Meciar lost his cool in a televised debate between the rounds, reminding voters what a boorish old bully he was.

The best thing to be said for Mr Gasparovic is that he is scarcely known outside Slovakia, making him less of a diplomatic embarrassment. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but the return of Mr Meciar would still have perturbed NATO and the European Union, which had refused even to consider Slovakia for membership while he was prime minister. Slovakia is joining both organisations this year.

But for domestic political calculations, Slovakia's fragile centre-right coalition government might quietly have preferred a Meciar victory, once its own candidate, Eduard Kukan, had lost in the first round. A grudging respect seems to have grown up between Mr Meciar and his successor as prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, despite bitter political differences. Mr Gasparovic is an unknown quantity, the more so since he was helped to victory by Smer, a populist left-wing movement that has overtaken Mr Meciar's HZDS as the most popular party in the country.

The rise of Smer is worrying for the future of Slovakia's reforms, and doubly so when seen as part of a trend towards populist parties in other parts of central Europe. These include Samoobrona, the potato-throwing farmers' movement that leads in Poland's opinion polls. The next test for this awkward squad will be June's elections to the European Parliament, which may find its chamber disturbed by many raucous new voices.