Liberals have a slender lead in Slovakia’s elections over a pro-Moscow party led by populist former PM Robert Fico, exit polls suggest.

The pro-Moscow party, Smer-SD, had been expected to win the vote, but polls suggest its popularity has fallen in recent days.

Smer has pledged an immediate end to military support for Ukraine.

Vote counting is continuing and the real results will not be known for several hours.

If the liberal group Progressive Slovakia is confirmed as the winner, it will lead coalition talks on forming the next government.

  • mholiv@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is amazing news. Stepping away from the corrupt, war mongering, imperialist regime that is Moscow can only be a good thing for the European community and human dignity everywhere.

    Let’s hope they pull threw.

    Edit: Sad news. Let’s hope a progressive coalition can be formed.

      • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t understand slovakian politics, but smer “won” by a 22% in a parlamentarischen ellection. Is this that dramatic?

        Fico won the election with a pro russian rhetoric but 78% voted against it. Am i missing something?

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      They’ve changed the headline:

      Slovakia elections: Populist party leads as most votes counted

      A populist pro-Moscow party led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico is ahead in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections, with most votes counted.

      The Smer-SSD party was leading despite exit polls suggesting victory by a liberal centrist party.

      • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Mr Fico was forced to step down as PM following the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018.

        Ffs

        Smer dismisses that vision as “liberal fascism”, campaigning on stability, order and social security instead. Mr Fico has also said that he is concerned about the rise in the number of migrants going to western Europe through Slovakia.

        Yeah, pay the rich boomers to vote for you, that’s a safe play.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Looks like Voice will be a king maker. Voice was part of Smer, but broke off and then got in a bunch of legal trouble, causing its polling to drop. Still, it looked like they will come in third last I checked.

  • Spzi@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The pro-Moscow Smer-SSD party had a clear lead with almost 24% of the vote

    The liberal Progressive Slovakia party, which exit polls suggested had won the election, polled at about 17%.

    FYI you can edit the (now sadly misleading) title, @MicroWave@lemmy.world

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Liberals have a slender lead in Slovakia’s elections over a pro-Moscow party led by populist former PM Robert Fico, exit polls suggest.

    The pro-Moscow party, Smer-SD, had been expected to win the vote, but polls suggest its popularity has fallen in recent days.

    Progressive Slovakia, led by European Parliament vice-speaker Michal Simecka, was projected to win 23.5% of the vote, ahead of 21.9% for Mr Fico’s party, an exit poll by Focus agency for TV Markiza showed.

    The threat has led to concerns among European Union and Nato members, while gaining support on social media among Slovaks who traditionally have warm sentiments towards Moscow.

    Slovakia has been a loyal and steadfast ally to Kyiv, supplying surface-to-air missiles and helicopters and even donating its entire fleet of retired MiG-29 fighter jets.

    Progressive Slovakia offers a vision of an “open, tolerant, cosmopolitan society” and has advocated following a liberal line within the European Union on issues such as green policies and LGBTQ+ rights.


    The original article contains 361 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!