Prime Minister Robert Fico tops the latest Polis agency poll as both the most and least trusted politician in Slovakia, the TASR newswire was told by the agency's Ján Baránek on Wednesday, March 6. The telephone survey, which was conducted on behalf of television news channel TA3, was carried out on a sample of 1,100 respondents between March 1 and 5.

According to the poll's results, while 28.5 percent of the respondents expressed trust in Fico, as many as 30.6 percent cited him as the least trusted in Slovakia. As for the other most trusted politicians, Fico was followed by Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer) with 15.1 percent, Most-Híd chairman Béla Bugár with 8.2 percent, former prime minister Iveta Radičová with 8 percent and President Ivan Gašparovič with 7 percent.

The top ten most trusted list also featured Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák (6.7 percent), Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) leader Igor Matovič and Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) defector and independent MP Radoslav Procházka (both 6.2 percent), Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) chairman Pavol Frešo (5.3 percent) and founder of New Majority (NOVA) and Independent MP Daniel Lipšic (4.4 percent).

Former PM Mikuláš Dzurinda (SDKÚ) followed closely behind Fico among the least trusted politicians, with 30.5 percent, ahead of KDH chairman Ján Figeľ (16.1 percent), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) leader Richard Sulík (14.3 percent) and President Gašparovič (13.4 percent). They were followed by former finance minister Ivan Mikloš (SDKÚ - 11.4 percent), former Slovak National Party (SNS) chair Ján Slota (11 percent), Daniel Lipšic (9.8 percent), Robert Kaliňák (9.7 percent) and former PM Vladimír Mečiar (Movement for Democratic Slovakia, 7 percent).

In addition, the same poll revealed that had a general election taken place at the beginning of March, the governing Smer would have garnered 39 percent of the vote and thereby secured 75 seats in Parliament, lacking one seat to have the absolute majority and rule alone. SDKÚ would have come in second with 8.9 percent, making it the most popular opposition party. Next came OĽaNO with 8.5 percent, KDH with 7.8 percent, Most-Híd with 7.7 percent and SaS with 6.5 percent. No other party would have made it into parliament.

(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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