THE RULING coalition party of PM Robert Fico, Smer, tops the political popularity chart in Slovakia. Smer's support has jumped by 1.5 percentage points from January to 45.4 percent. This is an outcome of an opinion pool which the Statistics Office's Public Opinion Poll Institute conducted on a sample of 1,072 responders of over 18 years of age between February 1 and 8.
The opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) comes in second with 12.5 percent, down 2.2 points over a month. The popularity of the junior ruling coalition party the Slovak National Party (SNS) slipped by 1.6 points from the previous month to 12.4 percent. The opposition Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) gained 1.8 points to report support of 9.8 percent in early February.
The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) has 9.4 percent, an improvement by 2.2 points. The opposition Christian Democratic Movement's (KDH) popularity among voters declined from January's 8.2 percent to 7.4 percent in February.
The Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) reported support of only 0.8 percent. A party needs a minimum of five percent to get into parliament.
A total of 16.9 percent of the respondents would not vote in February. Another 13.5 percent were undecided which party they would support.
