The Slovaks voted on Saturday February 29 to end corruption. The anti-corruption party OLaNO (center right, opposition) won 24.87% of the vote in the legislative elections, ahead of the populists of the outgoing government, according to partial official results covering 83% of the polling stations.

Outgoing Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini acknowledged the defeat of his Smer-SD party (18.73%) against the OLaNO of Igor Matovic. "Congratulations to the winner," he said on the night of Saturday to Sunday, while noting that Igor Matovic's "good marketing" allowed him to come to power, but "it is not enough to govern. "

He raised the possibility of a "reconciliation coalition" with OLaNO. "Never say 'never'", he launched to journalists who questioned him on such a prospect, while considering that the question should be put to Igor Matovic.

Journalist's murder does not pass

This election was marked by the wish of a part of the country to end an era marked by corruption and the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak who had investigated this endemic phenomenon.

The founder and head of OLaNO (Ordinary people and independent personalities), Igor Matovic, appears well placed to be entrusted with the formation of a coalition government. Igor Matovic said he had already had a telephone interview with Liberal President Zuzana Caputova and said he would meet with her Monday or Tuesday. He planned to start preliminary talks on Sunday with the leaders of the other opposition parties.

"We will seek to form the best government that Slovakia has ever had, with the help of other leaders of the democratic opposition," he said. Its watchword is the fight against corruption, which became a national priority after the assassination of Jan Kuciak, in 2018. A businessman linked to politicians is accused of having sponsored this crime.

Slovakia "awakened"

"We have awakened the sleeping dragon, those more than two million people who do not want to vote. But in fact, it is the death of Jan Kuciak and (his fiancée) Martina Kusnirova which woke Slovakia up," continued Igor Matovic.

The double assassination of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée in 2018 had sparked major protests that had led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Robert Fico.

According to political analyst Grigorij Maseznikov, this drama "has reconfigured the entire political scene" and "the most likely scenario is the creation of a center-right government coalition for democracy of six or even seven parties".

Arriving in fourth position, but almost on par with the populist right-wing party SME Rodina (8.34%), the far-right LSNS party of Marian Kotleba (8.27%), favorable to Russia and hostile to NATO and the EU, denouncing the elites and showing its enmity towards the Roma minority, should strengthen its presence in the Parliament, where it had ten deputies.

The turnout was around 65%, still according to partial results, clearly exceeding the level of 2016 - 59.02% - which had been the highest since 2002.

With AFP

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