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Slovak anti-corruption opposition parties score emphatic election win


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Slovak anti-corruption opposition parties score emphatic election win

By Tomas Mrva and Jan Lopatka

 

2020-03-01T024046Z_2_LYNXMPEG2014G_RTROPTP_4_SLOVAKIA-ELECTION.JPG

Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) party leader Igor Matovic speaks at his party's headquarters during the parliamentary election, in Trnava, Slovakia, February 29, 2020. REUTERS/David W Cerny

 

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak opposition led by the Ordinary People party (OLANO) was on course for an emphatic victory in the country's parliamentary election, as voters angry with graft routed the ruling centre-left party that has dominated the political scene for over a decade.

 

Results from 77% of districts showed on Sunday that OLANO, a politically amorphous, pro-European Union and pro-NATO movement focused on fighting corruption, took 24.8% of the vote, ahead of the ruling Smer with 18.9%.

 

Support for OLANO had surged in recent weeks, from less than 6% late last year, concentrating a protest vote fed by the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée two years ago.

 

Seats won by other liberal and conservative parties gave OLANO a strong position to lead negotiations to form a new centre-right government. It was not clear from the partial results whether such a coalition would have to include the eurosceptic We Are Family party, which may be a source of tension.

 

(For an election poll graphic, click on: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/SLOVAKIA-ELECTION/0H001R8DYC3N/eikon.png)

 

OLANO leader Igor Matovic has pledged to clean up politics, an ambition encapsulated in his party's slogan: "Let's Beat the Mafia Together".

 

"I hope that the (exit poll) results will prove to be correct also for other democratic opposition parties, and we will be able to form a good government and Slovakia will be able to breathe hope and the law will apply to all, not just the ones with the right numbers in their cellphone," Matovic said after the exit poll was released.

 

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini from Smer acknowledged defeat and said the party's run in the office, for 12 out of the past 14 years, may be over.

 

"A probable departure of our party into opposition is not such a surprise," Pellegrini told reporters.

 

The political shift in the euro zone member state, which has avoided fights with Brussels unlike its central European Visegrad Group neighbours Hungary and Poland, started with the 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.

 

An investigation unearthed communications between a businessman now on trial for ordering the hit and politicians and judicial officials. The defendant has denied the charges.

 

The killing led to the biggest street protests in the post-communist era, forcing Smer leader Robert Fico to resign, though his party's coalition held on to power.

 

Matovic, 46, told Reuters last week he wanted to be a conciliatory voice towards the EU within Visegrad. The former owner of regional newspapers and a lawmaker since 2010, Matovic calls himself a social conservative and economic liberal.

 

In the European Parliament, OLANO is aligned with the centre-right European People's Party.

 

"I would like to send a positive signal," Matovic said, adding that he did not want European partners to feel Slovakia was a corrupt place "where journalists and their fiancees are murdered just because someone unearthed corruption".

 

Smer scored its worst result since 2002. Its nationalist and Hungarian minority allies did not win any seats in Parliament, the partial results showed.

 

Predictions that the far-right, anti-EU and anti-NATO People's Party could make strong gains were not borne out and the party won 8.4%, according to the partial results.

 

(Reporting by Tomas Mrva and Jan Lopatka; Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Leslie Adler and Rosalba O'Brien)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-01
Posted
21 hours ago, Redline said:

He won’t be invited for o the White House

 

Definitely not if Biden gets elected.

 

Not without a job offer for Biden junior!!

Posted
5 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Definitely not if Biden gets elected.

 

Not without a job offer for Biden junior!!

Biden is the new Hillary.  Who’s next?

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