Slovakia: AECR parties finish second and third in election

AECR members Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and NOVA won the second and third largest share of seats in yesterday’s Slovakian parliamentary elections. Official figures gave SaS 12.1% of the vote and NOVA, listed together with Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OL’aNO), 11.0%. The parties will now take 21 and 19 seats respectively in the 150-seat parliament.

AECR President Jan Zahradil congratulated SaS and NOVA on their election result, stating:

The outcome of the Slovakian elections represents a big success for our pan-European Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. Our member SaS and OL’aNO-NOVA together achieved more than twenty percent of the votes and ranked second and third, which reaffirms the popularity of our reality-based approach towards the European Union and a strengthening of opposition to eurofederalism.

On the other hand this election saw the failure of parties represented in the European People’s Party, backed by names such as Juncker and Merkel.

I congratulate our partners and friends in SaS and OL’aNO-NOVA. I am happy that eurorealism will now have a stronger voice in Slovakia.

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s ruling leftist Smer-Social Democracy party still won the election with 28.3% (49 seats), but it achieved 16% less than it did in 2012 and will now be forced to govern in a coalition. Any centre-right coalition would have to include SaS and NOVA-OL’aNO.

Slovakia will take over the EU’s rotating presidency from July 2016, making the outcome of Saturday’s vote all the more significant.