Sympathisers of the erstwhile leading party on the Slovak right, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), trust former party vice-chair Lucia Žitňanská (45 percent) more than recently-elected chairman Pavol Frešo (26 percent), a survey carried out by the Focus agency for the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) has revealed.
Third place among SDKÚ sympathisers was taken by former prime minister Iveta Radičová, who left not only politics but the party as well following this year's general election in March, the TASR newswire reported, quoting the survey.
Smer voters place the most trust in party leader Robert Fico (81 percent), followed by Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (34 percent), then President Ivan Gašparovič (11 percent), who is ostensibly non-partisan but is widely perceived to be an ally of Smer.
Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) supporters said they trust Fico (12 percent) as much as Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) leader Richard Sulík, for whose party current OĽaNO leader Igor Matovič was originally elected as an MP, in 2010. Neither of the two were close to the position of Matovič himself among OĽaNO sympathisers, however, as the maverick politician enjoys the trust of 69 percent, the Focus poll found.
Sulík is favoured within his own party by 73 percent of SaS voters, followed by Matovič (21 percent), and then Lucia Žitňanská and former SaS culture minister Daniel Krajcer (8 percent each).
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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