l-r: SNS chair Andrej Danko, Smer chair Robert Fico and Most-Hid chair Béla Bugár (source: SITA)
Though the ruling Smer party recorded a drop in political preferences by over 5 percentage points after the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušňírová, it has managed to halt the downward trend.
This stems from an exclusive poll carried out by the Focus agency for the Sme daily between December 1 and 9 on 1,019 respondents.
If the parliamentary elections took place in early December, Smer would be supported by 21.7 percent of those polled. Back in November, the party would have received only 20.9 percent.
“Many voters have no other party to vote for,” political analyst Pavol Baboš told Sme. “It’s the only party that works with social issues which concern either pensioners or manual workers.”
For Smer voters, the Slovak National Party (SNS) is their second choice. However, its chair Andrej Danko failed to attract the disappointed Smer supporters.
Current coalition would not be formed
The second strongest party, according to the Focus poll, would be the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) supported by 13.3 percent of respondents, followed by Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) with 10.5 percent.
The SNS and far-right Kotleba - People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) would harvest the same support as previously: 9.2 percent. Sme Rodina (We are Family) of Boris Kollár would win 9 percent, while the non-parliamentary Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) would receive 6.5 percent.
Two more parties would make it to parliament: the coalition party Most-Híd with 5.2 percent and Progressive Slovakia with 5.1 percent.
The recently established Spolu (Together) party would win the support of only 4.1 percent, down from 5 percent in November. As a result, it would not make it to parliament.
The Focus poll suggests that the current ruling coalition of Smer, SNS and Most-Híd would fail to have a majority in parliament. It would occupy only 60 of the 150 parliamentary seats available, Sme wrote.
However, it would not be possible to form a ruling coalition without the ĽSNS either. SaS, OĽaNO, Sme Rodina, KDH and Progressive Slovakia would have 75 mandates.
