AS PRIME Minister and chairman of the ruling party Smer, Robert Fico has been reported to be the most trusted politician in Slovakia.
A public opinion poll, conducted by the MVK agency on a sample of 1,104 respondents between February 28 and March 6, showed that Fico enjoys the trust of 45.6 percent of Slovak citizens, a moderate increase from 45.5 percent reported in October 2006. President Ivan Gašparovič followed with 27.1 percent, up from 21.8 percent. Interior Minister and Smer's deputy chairman, Róbert Kaliňák, came in third with 14.4 percent, up by 1.4 percentage points, coming in before Ján Slota, chairman of the junior ruling coalition member, the Slovak National Party (SNS). Slota came in fourth, winning the trust of 13.9 percent, which is five percentage points less than last October.
Each respondent was asked to name their three most trusted politicians, thus the cumulative result exceeds 100 percent.
The leader of the opposition Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), Béla Bugár, earned 11.3 percent support, up from 10.9 percent. The chairman of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), Vladimír Mečiar, followed with 9.5 percent, down 2.5 percentage points since October. The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union's leader Mikuláš Dzurinda only has the trust of 7.9 percent of Slovaks, down from 9.7 percent in October.
Fourteen percent of those polled said they don't trust any of Slovakia's current politicians.
The MVK poll did not only try to find out who people trust but also who they distrust.
Ex-prime minister Dzurinda topped the chart as Slovakia's most untrustworthy politician with 38.4 percent of respondents distrusting him. He took this dubious honour from Mečiar, whom 36.2 percent of respondents regarded as untrustworthy last October. In the October poll, Dzurinda finished third with only 33.3 percent of respondents not trusting him. In the latest poll, the chairmen of the junior coalition parties, Mečiar and Slota, were thought to be untrustworthy for approximately the same number of people - more than 33 percent. Fico was considered untrustworthy by 20.1 percent of respondents, up from 17.9 percent in October.
