The European Parliament. (source: TASR/AP)
Only after the group around [now president-elect] Peter Pellegrini left to form the Hlas party in 2020, and [now Defence Minister] Robert Kaliňák stepped down from his position as vice-chairman, did Ľuboš Blaha rise to prominence in the Smer party leadership.
While for Smer, Blaha has become a significant social media draw for voters in the conspiracy scene, the opposition considers him one of the most aggressive coalition politicians and has for years referred to him as "the MP who shall not be named" in reference to Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.
If Blaha takes up his new mandate as an MEP following his success in the June 8 election, he will leave not only his seat as a member of Parliament after 12 years and 4 terms, but also his position as its Deputy Speaker. He is a fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies, an opponent of the US, and one of the most loyal colleagues of Smer leader Robert Fico.
According to the Sme daily, Smer is planning to propose former police president and its MP Tibor Gašpar for Blaha's post.
Blaha's mandate will be claimed by one of the two alternates - either Ján Horváth, Mayor of the village of Chtelnica, Trnava Region, or Jozef Kačmár, former mayor of the village of Tisinec, who took over the Labour Office in Stropkov, Prešov Region, earlier this year. The latter can take over Erik Kaliňák's seat, the only other MP to succeed in the European elections.
The sole successful candidate who will have to give up his position if he takes up his MEP mandate is Braňo Ondruš, who is expected to become the only Hlas MEP. Currently he is the Labour Ministry State Secretary. Hlas has not yet commented on who might replace Ondruš at the ministry led by the party's Vice-Chairman Erik Tomáš.
Here is an overview of the elected MEPs.
Progresívne Slovensko
Number of MEPs: 6
Elected MEPs: Ľudovít Ódor, Ľubica Karvašová, Martin Hojsík, Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová, Michal Wiezik, Lucia Yar
Ľudovít Ódor is one of the most renowned Slovak economists. He is a co-author of the flat tax, worked on the pension reform, the introduction of the euro, the creation of budgetary rules, and was involved in the Value for Money project.
Since 2018, he has served as the vice governor of the National Bank of Slovakia. In 2023, President Zuzana Čaputová tasked him with forming a caretaker government, in which he served as prime minister for 4 months.
Ľubica Karvašová is a long-standing diplomat and an expert on the European Union. She served as an advisor to former prime ministers Igor Matovič and Eduard Heger. She is the granddaughter of former National Bank Governor Imrich Karvaš, who saved Slovakia's gold reserves from the Third Reich during the Slovak State and helped finance the Slovak National Uprising.
Martin Hojsík has spent more than 20 years with Greenpeace, focusing on environmental issues and the fight against the climate crisis. He has been an MEP since 2019. The EU Matrix platform ranked Hojsík 12th among the 100 most influential MEPs and 5th when it comes to green issues.
In the European Parliament, Hojsík was the rapporteur for the soil regulation, and he also addressed the stricter regulation of toxic substances in waste. Since last October, he has been the Vice President of the European Parliament, following PS leader Michal Šimečka's taking up a mandate in the Parliament after the September elections.
