[autom.vertaling] De pro-EU de krachten winnen Slowaakse verkiezing (en)
Former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's HZDS party became the biggest party in Slovakia's parliamentary election at the weekend with 19,5 percentage support but looks set to be excluded from power. The new government is set to be established by ruling center-right coalition.
Once again the former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar who remains the most popular politician in the country is lacking enough votes to form a majority government. Moreover, his showing slumped from 27 percent gained in 1998.
The four-party coalition of centre-right parties led by the SDKU and incumbent Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has managed to win the majority of 79 seats in the 150-strong parliament. Mr Dzurinda's SDKU won 15.1%, while current governing coalition partners the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) scored 8.25% and the ethnic Hungarian SMK party polled 11.2%. The results pave the way for these three parties to form a pro-European integration government together with Ano party but it is not clear who the prime minister would be.
Preparation for NATO and EU membership
A new rightist coalition is expected to boost ties with the West and prepare Slovakia for membership of the NATO and the EU. According to the head of EU delegation in Slovakia the outcome of parliamentary election shows that necessary reforms linked to Slovakia's EU bid will continue in the next term. Member states and the European Commission followed the election with a high interest and we believe everybody is fully satisfied with the result, Eric van der Linden said, according to Pravda newspaper.
The hardline Communist Party (KSS) will enter the parliament for the first time since Slovakia's independence after polling 6.32% of the vote. The left-leaning populist Smer of Robert Fico got 13,5%.
Slovakia bucked the regional trend, of centre-left victories in the last elections of the neighbouring Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. The new government will be the only one right-wing within the Visegrad group.