If parliamentary elections took place in January, the strongest opposition movement in parliament would be the new Nova Väčšina, or NOVA party of Daniel Lipšic – which would garner 8.9 percent of the vote. The TASR newswire reported this from a poll of the MVK polling agency conducted between January 7 and 13 on 1,125 respondents.
The ruling Smer party would keep its top position with 41.1 percent of votes (thus garnering 75 parliamentary chairs out of 150); followed by NOVA, Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) with 8.6 percent and 16 chairs, the same as NOVA. Other parties to make it into parliament would be the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) with 6.5 percent and 12 seats; and Most-Híd with 6.2 percent and 11 seats. Barely making it over the 5-percent threshold required for parliamentary presence would be Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) with 5.6 percent and Slovak Democratic and Christian union (SDKÚ) with 5.5 percent, with ten chairs each.
As in the last election, ethnic-Hungarian (SMK) earned 4.6 percent and the Slovak National Party (SNS) garnered 4.4 percent, meaning neither would make it into parliament. Almost 10 percent of those polled responded that they would definitely not go to the voting booths, and 20.3 percent said they were undecided.
Social analyst Pavel Haulíka from MVK commented that these numbers show that new projects are in big demand on Slovak political scene: traditional political parties stagnated or even declined, while the new NOVA movement grew. “I interpret it as failed expectations from traditional, or well-established political parties,” he told TASR. “The results imply to me something of a signal from voters that they want a change,” Haulík commented. He added, however, that the traditional problem accompanying new parties is how to preserve an enthusiastic voting base after the elections.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
