THE LEADERS of two of the governing coalition parties ranked highest in a recent survey of which politicians in Slovakia are trusted the least.
A survey conducted by the MVK polling agency between September 22 and 29 found that Vladimír Mečiar, a former prime minister and currently chairman of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), is regarded as untrustworthy by nearly 40 percent of respondents.
Ján Slota, chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS), was regarded as untrustworthy by 35.7 percent or respondents. The survey contacted 1,176 respondents, the SITA newswire wrote.
Mikuláš Dzurinda, another former prime minister and the current chairman of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), who had previously been ranked the country's least trustworthy politician, finished third, with 35.2 percent. This was a drop of 4.7 percentage points compared with the same survey in June.
Rounding out the top five were Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) boss Pál Csáky, with 17.9 percent, and Prime Minister Robert Fico, with 17.8 percent.
At the same time, Fico remained the country’s most trusted politician, with the support of over 46 percent of respondents. Compared with the same survey in June, this is an increase of 3.7 percentage points.
President Ivan Gašparovič was the second most trusted politician, with 34.4 percent, and SDKÚ vice-chairwoman Iveta Radičová was third, with 19 percent.
Ján Slota and Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák also earned the support of over 10 percent of respondents, receiving 12.2 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Respondents were asked to name three politicians they trusted and three they did not.
