IN SLOVAKIA, unlike in France, the UK or Hungary, the European Parliament (EP) elections did not help elevate extremist candidates into parliamentary chairs, even though the nationalist and ultra-rightist parties altogether received about 8 percent of the vote, the Sme daily reported.
The once-ruling nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), which in the past election term held one MEP chair (Jaroslav Paška), won the highest number of votes among this group, but the 3.61 percent of the vote comes as a disappointment to the party, since it means it will not be sending its representative to the EP. Outgoing MEP Paška says that the problem is that the electorate of the SNS is divided among three political parties, the Sme daily reported.
The newly-emerged Christian Slovak National Party for which the former long-term leader of the SNS, Ján Slota ran, appealed to just 0.64 percent of the voters.
The ultra rightist People’s Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) of Marian Kotleba was also unsuccessful in the vote. The Banská Bystrica Governor Kotleba was not interested in a position in Brussels and without him his party gained mere 1.73 percent. Even the candidacy of Kotleba’s brother Martin helped the party, Sme wrote. Fewer than 10,000 people voted for ĽSNS while in November 2013 Kotleba got over 70,000 votes in the runoff of the regional elections.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
