The representatives of parties that will sit in the parliament. L-r: Veronika Remišová (Za Ľudí), Richard Sulík (SaS), Martin Beluský (ĽSNS), Boris Kollár (Sme Rodina), Juraj Blanár (Smer), and Igor Matovič (OĽaNO). (source: TASR)
A few weeks ago, not many people would have expected Igor Matovič’s Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) would win the elections. Hovering at around 6 percent in polls last November, it seemed improbable he would become the leader of the opposition.
The man who defeated Smer. Who is Igor Matovič?
The situation changed a few weeks before the elections, and “secret” polls carried out during a 14-day legal moratorium before the vote suggested that OĽaNO would be able to match or even beat Smer, which has been in power for 12 years.
“When its support started to rise, people understood there was a chance that by supporting them, they would get a better result and would defeat Smer,” Grigorij Mesežnikov of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) told The Slovak Spectator.
