Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (l) and PM Robert Fico (r) (source: TASR)
Neither the so-called Bašternák case, alleging relations between tax fraud suspect Ladislav Bašternák and Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer), the opposition protests or the health condition of PM Robert Fico have impacted the voters’ preferences in the August poll carried out by the pollster Focus. Support for the political parties has not changed during the summer months, the Sme daily reported.
Smer would win a general election if it was held in mid-August, harvesting 27 percent of the vote. Though its support increased by 0.6 percentage points compared with June, it is still very low compared with the past few years, Sme wrote.
The second highest number of votes would be received by the Slovak National Party (SNS), supported by 14 percent of voters. Its support dropped by 0.5 percentage points compared with June. Third, Freedom and Solidary (SaS) would harvest 13.7 percent, according to the poll carried out between August 11 and 16 on 1,002 respondents.
Also the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO-NOVA) would make it to parliament with 9.7 percent of the vote, followed by far-right Kotleba – People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) with 8.9 percent, We Are Family with 6.9 percent, and Most-Híd with 6.1 percent, the TASR newswire reported.
As for the parliamentary seats, Smer would win 47 mandates, while SNS and SaS would get 24 each, OĽaNO-NOVA 17, ĽSNS 15, We Are Family 12, and Most-Híd 11.
The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) would receive only 4.6 percent of the vote, while the Party of the Hungarian Community (SMK) only 3.6 percent, thus failing to pass the 5-percent threshold. Also current coalition party Sieť would remain outside the parliament, winning the support of only 1.4 percent of respondents, TASR wrote.
Around 14 percent of the respondents would not have voted this time, while 9.3 percent would not have known whom to vote for.
The poll has not reflected the impacts of current changes in the coalition, caused by the departure of five Sieť MPs and their decision to join Most-Híd’s caucus, Sme reported.
