Slovak Elections and Politics | Fico the Fourth 🇸🇰

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The post-election government formation should be fun...(especially for Pele)

[Logical]

Fico has been given the mandate to form a government within 14 days by President Čaputová just now.

[Estrella]

Mostly for my own reference, but sharing it here. I checked up on all 150 new MPs and tried to sort them by their background.



Fun fact: "local politicians" includes five of eight incumbent regional governors - Juraj Droba (Bratislava, SaS), Erika Jurinová (Žilina, OĽANO), Milan Majerský (Prešov, KDH), Jozef Viskupič (Trnava, OĽANO) and Jaroslav Baška (Trenčín, Smer). Also, a honorable mention to one of the more interesting new MPs, Ondrej Prostredník of Progressive Slovakia: a Lutheran priest, professor of theology, former dean of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of Comenius University, a campaigner for LGBT rights and a prominent figure of Bratislava Pride.

Voters can give up to four preferences (personal votes) to candidates of their party. Candidates who win an equivalent of 3% of their party's votes in preferences are elected in order of preferences and any remaining seats are filled in order candidates appeared on the list. This year, 60-ish candidates were elected according to their place on the list. Most of them are from Smer and Hlas - their voters concentrated their preferences on a few candidates, as you can see from the list of highest personal votes:



The open list system had one hilarious consequence for one particular party. At the top of the SNS list was leader Andrej Danko, followed by a few dozen close confidantes, lifetime SNS members, ex-ministers for SNS etc, interspersed with a small number of candidates representing minor parties running on their list. SNS elected 10 MPs, of which:
- 3 are members of far-right Christian nationalist Život (Tomáš Taraba, Filip Kuffa, Štefan Kuffa)
- 3 are independents active in the far-right Putinist scene who ran on the SNS list without joining the party (Roman Michelko, Martina Šimkovičová, Peter Kotlár)
- 3 are members of far-right conspiracist pseudo-green "ban 5G and GMOs" HZDS splinter Národná koalícia (Rudolf Huliak, Ivan Ševčík, Pavel Ľupták)
- 1 is an actual member of SNS (Andrej Danko)

[jaichind]

https://www.barrons.com/news/slovakia-accuses-russia-of-election-interference-3eb0e5dc?refsec=topics_afp-news

"Slovakia Accuses Russia Of Election Interference"

Slovakia on Monday accused Moscow of interfering in its parliamentary election and summoned a Russian embassy official, following remarks by Russia's foreign intelligence service director about US "interference" in the country.

[RGM2609]

How did SNS screw this up so badly lol. Does this make a split in the parliamentary group likely and, in turn, the only possible Smer government (Smer-Hlas-SNS) less likely?

[Storr]

How did SNS screw this up so badly lol. Does this make a split in the parliamentary group likely and, in turn, the only possible Smer government (Smer-Hlas-SNS) less likely?

1) As for SNS: when you are led by clowns, expect them to do silly things.

2) I'm not sure, honestly.

Though I wouldn't say the only possible government is Smer-Hlas-SNS. It's certainly by far the mostly likely to form. But, PS-Hlas-KDH-SaS is (in theory) possible. Of course such a coalition would be quite uneasy and unstable. It could fall apart in a short amount of time, like the Matovic government did after just one year.

Smer-Hlas-KDH is also possible. Because despite what KDH leaders have said in the aftermath of the election about the party not joining a coalition with Smer, I don't trust them at their word.

[Beagle]

Fun fact: "local politicians" includes five of eight incumbent regional governors - Juraj Droba (Bratislava, SaS), Erika Jurinová (Žilina, OĽANO), Milan Majerský (Prešov, KDH), Jozef Viskupič (Trnava, OĽANO) and Jaroslav Baška (Trenčín, Smer).

Thanks for the explanation! Is there a 'dual mandate' in Slovakia or do the governors have to step down to enter parliament? If so, how are the vacancies filled?

Voters can give up to four preferences (personal votes) to candidates of their party. Candidates who win an equivalent of 3% of their party's votes in preferences are elected in order of preferences and any remaining seats are filled in order candidates appeared on the list.

How does the preferential voting work in practice? I gather that the voters are presented with a set of ballots, from which they pick the sheet with the party they want. Then do they circle the name of their preference, do they place a tick beside their name or what? And are the poll workers supposed to tally the preferences on the night in the polling station? After 15 hours of polling, there are bound to be heaps of transcription and tabulation errors.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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Also, I'd be grateful if next time you guys can maybe not have the Bulgarian Socialist Party leader gloat on facebook:

Congratulations to my friend Robert!
No to the war in Ukraine!
No to migrant quotas!
No to gender ideology and the Istanbul Convention!
For six years Robert and I have been the black sheep of PES because we would stand against the EU migrant policy and the creeping imposition of a third gender beyond male and female. But now people are slowly but surely reawakening. Slovakia opened its eyes! Bulgaria is next!

[PSOL]

Did Eduard Chemelar get in?

[Storr]

A cartoon depicting how liberals feel Pellegrini is making his decision on who to form a government with:

https://dennikn.sk/3603366/newsfilter-teraz-uvidime-ako-velmi-je-pellegrini-slobodny/?ref=tit1

[PSOL]

A cartoon depicting how liberals feel Pellegrini is making his decision on who to form a government with:

https://dennikn.sk/3603366/newsfilter-teraz-uvidime-ako-velmi-je-pellegrini-slobodny/?ref=tit1

Maybe the EU should ensure a better deal to many Eastern Europeans.

[warandwar]

A cartoon depicting how liberals feel Pellegrini is making his decision on who to form a government with:

https://dennikn.sk/3603366/newsfilter-teraz-uvidime-ako-velmi-je-pellegrini-slobodny/?ref=tit1

Maybe the EU should ensure a better deal to many Eastern Europeans.

It would definitely make his side of the scale tilt down more.

[Estrella]

Fun fact: "local politicians" includes five of eight incumbent regional governors - Juraj Droba (Bratislava, SaS), Erika Jurinová (Žilina, OĽANO), Milan Majerský (Prešov, KDH), Jozef Viskupič (Trnava, OĽANO) and Jaroslav Baška (Trenčín, Smer).

Thanks for the explanation! Is there a 'dual mandate' in Slovakia or do the governors have to step down to enter parliament? If so, how are the vacancies filled?

They're allowed to stay in both offices. I can't find anything about how a governor would be replaced if they left office midway throught the term - I don't think that has ever happened.

How does the preferential voting work in practice? I gather that the voters are presented with a set of ballots, from which they pick the sheet with the party they want. Then do they circle the name of their preference, do they place a tick beside their name or what? And are the poll workers supposed to tally the preferences on the night in the polling station? After 15 hours of polling, there are bound to be heaps of transcription and tabulation errors.

Yep, voters are handed separate ballot papers for all parties with a numbered list of candidates (like this) and circle the candidates' numbers. It's all tallied and published on the night and we know the final preference numbers on Sunday morning, at the same time as final results for parties. You know, I've also wondered how they can do it so fast  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Congratulations to my friend Robert!
No to the war in Ukraine!
No to migrant quotas!
No to gender ideology and the Istanbul Convention!
For six years Robert and I have been the black sheep of PES because we would stand against the EU migrant policy and the creeping imposition of a third gender beyond male and female. But now people are slowly but surely reawakening. Slovakia opened its eyes! Bulgaria is next!

lmao of course she said that

[Estrella]

Did Eduard Chemelar get in?

No, and he didn't even stand, although with his whole MUH NAZI UKRAINE thing he'd feel right at home in Smer. The Socialists' current leader Artur Bekmatov was standing on the Smer list on 150th place. A lot of voters like to preference the last person on the list as an underdog (even if they often aren't) and so he should've been 100% safe, but he managed to win only 15,375 of the 20,000-ish votes he needed (the 3% of party's votes mentioned above).

[PSOL]

Did Eduard Chemelar get in?

No, and he didn't even stand, although with his whole MUH NAZI UKRAINE thing he'd feel right at home in Smer. The Socialists' current leader Artur Bekmatov was standing on the Smer list on 150th place. A lot of voters like to preference the last person on the list as an underdog (even if they often aren't) and so he should've been 100% safe, but he managed to win only 15,375 of the 20,000-ish votes he needed (the 3% of party's votes mentioned above).

What a shame, although they should have known better.

[Estrella]

The Statistical Office helpfully put together separate sets of results for towns and villages. Slovakia has the lowest urbanization rate in Europe outside Balkans, so this nicely divides the country into two roughly equal parts.

Cities and towns (1,533,808 votes cast)
Smer 22.4%
PS 21.5%
Hlas 14.3%
SaS 7.9%
OĽANO 7.7%
KDH 6.2%
SNS 5.4%
Republika 4.3%
Demokrati 3.4%
Szövetség 2.7%
Sme rodina 2.1%

Villages (1,376,232 votes cast)
Smer 24.3%
Hlas 15.7%
PS 12.2%
OĽANO 10.5%
KDH 7.8%
Szövetség 6.4%
SNS 6.0%
Republika 5.3%
SaS 4.9%
Demokrati 2.4%
Sme rodina 2.4%

Expats (57,856 votes cast)
PS 61.7%
SaS 10.8%
Smer 6.1%
OĽANO 3.8%
SNS 3.8%
KDH 3.3%
Republika 3.2%
Demokrati 2.5%
Hlas 2.5%

This might not look like that strong urban-rural polarization, but Slovak cities often have only a few tens of thousands people. There are in fact only two cities in Slovakia with a population over 100,000:

Bratislava (population 424,000)
PS 34.0%
Smer 17.5%
SaS 13.8%
Hlas 9.4%
OĽANO 5.4%
KDH 4.9%
Demokrati 4.6%
SNS 4.1%
Republika 2.7%
Sme rodina 1.5%

Košice (population 239,000)
PS 23.9%
Smer 17.9%
Hlas 13.3%
SaS 9.5%
OĽANO 9.2%
KDH 7.3%
SNS 4.5%
Demokrati 4.3%
Republika 4.1%
Sme rodina 2.6%
Szövetség 1.2%

It's still remarkable though how well Smer and SNS did even in the two biggest cities

[Estrella]

Besides the whole SNS clownshow, there are some more minor party MPs who were elected on other parties' lists. As a coalition, OĽANO and Friends obviously has the most. Their 16-member caucus contains 2 MPs from Christian Union: legislation-spamming obsessive prolifer Anna Záborská and ex-KDH (and ex-OĽANO before that) obsessive anti-sex-ed type Richard Vašečka. Za ľudí elected their leader Veronika Remišová. A few more were elected directly from the OĽANO list within the coalition (it's complicated, I know). Pačivale Roma elected 2 or 4 MPs (it's unclear): boxer Viliam Tankó, teacher and social worker Anežka Škopová, OĽANO MEP Peter Pollák and football player Lukáš Bužo. Old KDH splinter NOVA elected Gábor Grendel, also from the OĽANO list. On the SaS list, independent eccentric Alojz Hlina and leader of Civic Conservative Party Ondrej Dostál were elected. Dobrá voľba technically didn't elect anyone, as they officially merged into Hlas the day before the election and ceased to exist.

[Estrella]

Also, for fun, here are the results of the outgoing (kind of) coalitions compared to their 2020 performance:

Matovič/Heger I (OĽANO+Sme rodina+SaS+Za ľudí+Democrats): 20.3% (▼24.9) / 27 seats (▼68)

Heger II (OĽANO+Sme rodina+Za ľudí+Democrats) 14.0% (▼25.0) / 16 seats (▼66)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Also, for fun, here are the results of the outgoing (kind of) coalitions compared to their 2020 performance:

Matovič/Heger I (OĽANO+Sme rodina+SaS+Za ľudí+Democrats): 20.3% (▼24.9) / 27 seats (▼68)

Heger II (OĽANO+Sme rodina+Za ľudí+Democrats) 14.0% (▼25.0) / 16 seats (▼66)

So, uh, how is Matovic himself taking these losses? Also, Heger?

[Estrella]

Also, for fun, here are the results of the outgoing (kind of) coalitions compared to their 2020 performance:

Matovič/Heger I (OĽANO+Sme rodina+SaS+Za ľudí+Democrats): 20.3% (▼24.9) / 27 seats (▼68)

Heger II (OĽANO+Sme rodina+Za ľudí+Democrats) 14.0% (▼25.0) / 16 seats (▼66)

So, uh, how is Matovic himself taking these losses? Also, Heger?

Matovič is just happy he got into parliament at all. Heger and his party clearly had much higher expectations, but after Saturday nobody cares about him or remembers he exists.

[RGM2609]

I'm going to guess Matovic is pretty happy with the result. He probably enjoys being in opposition and shouting against the mafiots/Sorosists more than he ever did being PM.

[Estrella]

ayyyy lmao

National Criminal Agency raided the building housing the headquarters of Sme rodina

On Wednesday morning, the National Criminal Agency counducted raids in ten companies in Bratislava. Police also raided the building on Leškova 5 in Bratislava, where multiple companies owned by Boris Kollár are headquartered. The building houses Fun Radio, but also the headquarters of Sme rodina.

"NAKA officers have been carrying out operation TARGETY since the morning hours today, which is aimed at the investigation of large-scale economic crime. According to findings of the police, it was committed between 2011 and 2021 with VAT totalling approximately €7.5 million," the police said on social media.

In this regard, officers of the Police Corps are carrying out procedural and detective actions at 17 locations throughout the Slovak Republic. According to the Pravda daily, this is a continuation of operation VATA, in which the damage is provisionally estimated at €8.5 million.

[Storr]

Why I love Slovak politics: today, outgoing technocratic PM Ľudovít Ódor brought a "5,0%" made out of legos to a press conference representing how a new government can build their own package to cut the "percentage of GDP [that] needs to be saved in the next three years to stop the growth of debt". At the press conference he announced a hundred consolidation measures worth over €9 Billion, including raising the Value Added Tax from 20% to 22%. (No, it's not a coincidence these were announced after the elections.)

[Estrella]

Part the Third

"Hi Boris. What have you done to me? I was looking forward to long, interesting trench warfare and you turned it into a brief border conflict. I was expecting you to swear at me, insult me and accuse me through the media, and I would have responded to it. But I think you surprised everyone. By committing political suicide you ruined my plans. That's why I'm responding so late. Even though you're saying your electoral failure is the result of a dirty campaign, the people are convinced it's been caused by your non-standard lifestyle and especially the lack of humility, honor and decency."

Clearly not one to stop beating a man when he's down, Zoroslav presents a long series of vague accusations about Boris' personal life: anything from abusing emergency lights on official limousines to having sexual relationships with minors and forcing them to get an abortion. He promises to explore these topics in detail and hand over any relevant information he finds to the police. He says that he's simply doing it to help one of Boris' ex-mistresses after she talked to the media about what Boris is really like and became the target of his wrath.

[Storr]

The madlad did it:

"Pellegrini asked Fico for the post of prime minister"

[PSOL]

Pellegrini being PM seems like the least bad option here compared to Fico. It would ensure a nominally social democratic government without any clowns in government.