Ivan Korčok offers a worldview that almost exactly contrasts with the one peddled by Smer in its parliamentary campaign. (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Ivan Korčok has announced he will run for president in next year’s election, but the parliamentary election comes first. Fico confirms he wants to be prime minister, while the German ambassador says that German politicians are “well aware of who he is”. And beginning this week, a book tip.
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First presidential candidate comes forward
When Zuzana Čaputová announced, two months ago, that she would not run for re-election once her term expires next June, the eyes of her many supporters turned to Ivan Korčok.
Korčok was by then no longer foreign affairs minister, a post he had held since 2020 as a nominee of SaS. In response to speculation about a possible bid, he at first declined to confirm, instead asking for time to think about it. Last Wednesday, he announced his decision – he will indeed run for president next year.
Two different elections
Korčok is the first person to officially announce his candidacy. Apart from him, one other potential hopeful, who also happens to be a former foreign minister, Ján Kubiš, has said he plans to collect the 15,000 citizens’ signatures that non-partisan candidates need in order to submit a presidential bid. Peter Weiss, a social-democratic politician from the 1990s, was also rumoured as a potential candidate, but he now says it’s not for him (see Quote of the Week, below).
