An opinion poll conducted by the Markant polling agency shows that HZDS boss and former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar is still both the most liked and most hated politician in Slovakia. The poll was conducted from August 25 to September 5 and included 982 respondents.
Mečiar came first as 27.4% of the respondents said he was their favourite politician. The controversial former leader was followed by former SDĽ member Róbert Fico (22.4%), President Rudolf Schuster (22.3%), and Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda (17.3%).
In the category of least favourite politician, Mečiar again stood alone at the top with a 37.2% share. Dzurinda ran second with 25.1%, followed by Justice Minister Ján Čarnogurský with 22%. The fourth, fifth and sixth least popular politicians were, in order, recently-ousted SNS party boss Ján Slota, Hungarian Coalition Party chairman Béla Bugár and Deputy Prime Minister for Human and Minority Rights Pál Csáky.
Compared to a similar poll conducted in February, the results show that Mečiar, Fico and Ivan Mjartan (SDS) recorded the biggest increases in popularity. Meanwhile, Čarnogurský, Dzurinda Slota, Bugár and Csáky all experienced a sharp fall in popularity.
