Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (r) sits next to Prime Minister Robert Fico in parliament. Speaker Peter Pellegrini is pictured sitting above them. (source: TASR)
Speaker of Parliament and Hlas party leader Peter Pellegrini is the most trusted governing coalition nominee, according to the latest AKO poll.
Two Hlas-nominated ministers, Education Minister Tomáš Drucker and Labour Minister Erik Tomáš, came second and third.
The survey, which did not ask respondents about opposition politicians or President Zuzana Čaputová, was conducted from November 7 to 14 for the private television channel Joj.
Defence minister is widely distrusted
Pellegrini, who has not confirmed if he will run in the next year’s presidential election, is trusted by more than half of Slovaks. By contrast, a similar number do not trust Prime Minister Robert Fico, although he is still the third most trusted member of his government.
Fico received the highest number of preference votes – 531,528 – in the September parliamentary election. Today, the four-time prime minister receives the second highest distrust rating of any government official. Only Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer), who was interior minister in three previous governments, recorded an even higher level of distrust compared to Fico in the poll.
Another politician who recorded high levels of distrust was Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, a Slovak National Party (SNS) nominee and star of her own online disinformation TV channel. Recently, she criticised a display of queer art in the Slovak Radio building and decided to divert €300,000 that had been earmarked for fighting disinformation to the renovation of the roof of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava instead.
Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár (Smer) and Economy Minister Denisa Saková (Hlas) made it to the top five least trusted government officials, too.
Only 30 percent of Slovaks trust Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas). The minister survived a vote of no confidence in parliament earlier this week. The opposition wanted to remove him from his post over his ongoing purge of anti-corruption investigators in the police force, including the suspension of several prominent police officers who have been dealing with corruption cases dating back to former Smer governments.
Justice Minister for Smer Boris Susko is the least known minister, according to the poll, just pipping Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec in the anonymity stakes.
