Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič asked the current Prime Minister Robert Fico and leader of Smer, the party with the best election results, to try to form a new government. Fico has been given until Wednesday, June 23, for negotiations to do so, the SITA newswire wrote.
Fico accepted the president’s offer. Smer won the parliamentary elections held on Saturday, June 12, with 34.79 percent of the vote. Its current ruling coalition partner, the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), however, did not make it to parliament and the third current coalition partner, the Slovak National Party (SNS) took only 5.07 percent of the vote.
Smer and the SNS will have 71 seats in the new parliament. The centre-right parties: the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS),
Most-Híd and the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) won a total of 79 deputy seats. All four parties have ruled out potential cooperation with Smer and said they would not hold talks with Prime Minister Fico.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
