Fedor Flašik, the election team leader for Robert Fico of the opposition Smer party, told an audience of university students in Banská Bystrica that the main reason Fico had not done as well in September elections as expected was that he had not been sufficiently positive about Slovakia’s EU and Nato membership.
Flašik added that voters had apparently not believed that Fico would not cooperate with controversial former Slovak PM Vladimír Mečiar after the vote, and for the two reasons mentioned had sought security in Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda’s SDKÚ party.
In the ballot, Dzurinda’s SDKÚ took over 15.1 per cent of the vote to finish second behind Mečiar’s HZDS party, after having polled as little as 6.9 per cent support in the weeks leading up to elections. The SDKÚ went on to lead a cabinet of centre-right parties.
Fico’s Smer, on the other hand, took less than 14 per cent after having led all parties in the run-up to elections, and rather than leading talks on forming a government was banished to opposition.
Compiled by Tom Nicholson from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
