Peter Pellegrini on election night (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. As Robert Fico leads coalition talks, a major concern in Slovakia regards the police investigations. European socialists are not happy about Smer, again. And border checks have been reintroduced.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
How the coalition talks are going, so far
More than a week on from the general election, the elected parties are still jockeying for position, in their search to agree a coalition.
Progressive Slovakia party leader Michal Šimečka confirmed over the weekend that, despite his party having won more votes, he is ready to give up the role of prime minister in a potential PS-led government in favour of Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini, if that is what it takes to put together a coalition excluding Smer.
In such an arrangement, PS would insist on having the post of the interior minister, he added.
Towards the end of the first week of coalition talks, the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, among other things, has become the pivotal point in talks between Smer and Hlas as well as possible talks between Hlas and PS. This simple fact says everything about what is really at stake in Slovakia’s post-election reality.
The apparent obsession with the interior department might be a curious detail, but it makes a great deal of sense when one considers that some of the most senior members of the party that came first in the election are facing criminal prosecution.
