Former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his populist, leftist party, SMER-SD have won the early Parliament election in Slovakia after 99.9% of the votes cast on Saturday were counted. The result contradicts the exit polls, which indicated the victory of the pro-European Progressive Slovakia. SMER-SD, which promoted anti-NATO and EU messages during their campaign and pledged to cut the military support given to Ukraine, has mustered 23.3% of the votes, 6% more than the Progressive Slovakia. Radio Romania correspondent in Slovakia says that a coalition is envisaged involving SMER, Hlas, which is a splinter group from Fico’s party and the Christian-Democrats, which together have most of the Parliament seats. Robert Fico was forced to step down in 2018 amid protests caused by the killing of an investigative journalist.
