Grigorij Mesežnikov (source: Courtesy of IVO)
TSS: How will the presidential elections look without the incumbent President Andrej Kiska? Do you see any possible candidate among the names that have been mentioned who could fill Kiska’s shoes?
I believe there was a 99-percent chance that Kiska would win the elections if he ran. Now the result will be less predictable. The important thing for Slovakia now is to find a candidate who is electable and at the same time capable of maintaining the standards that Kiska has set with his performance in the post. We are now likely to have quite a few candidates, and for sure there will be some among them with the same setup as Kiska, but the question is whether they will have sufficient support. Some names have appeared, but there is none that would have a support deeming him or her a clear leader.
TSS: The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) has already said they want to seek a common candidate with the rest of the opposition. What are the chances the opposition will find one?
SaS says they want to propose one non-partisan candidate, which I see positively as an initiative. It could be possible to find an agreement on a non-partisan candidate, much more than on a candidate with some party interests. So it is an attempt for collaboration, but other parties for now have been saying they want to have their own candidates. Boris Kollar even said he already had a candidate from within the party. It is likely that some parties will try to use the presidential campaign for their promotion, with the aim of gaining more votes in the next elections.
TSS: What about Robert Fico? Do you think he might change his mind about not running in the presidential race now that Kiska is going to abstain?
