Analysts about the EP elections in Slovakia

According to experts, the success of Progressive Slovakia (PS) in the EP elections can be described as bitter-sweet. On one hand, the party defeated strongest coalition party Smer-SD. On the other hand, if the parliamentary elections had ended with a similar result, PS would have had no one to form a government with. The results, according to experts, continues to show a significant polarisation of society.

Radoslav Štefančík from the University of Economics in Bratislava points out that PS won not only with their policies, but also at the expense of two Slovak parties with similar agendas - the Democrats and SaS. In the case of parliamentary elections, this would be a problem.

Smer-SD party cannot complain about its second place either, says the expert pointing out that it has managed to take over a part of votes from the voters of other parties. On the other hand, for Hlas-SD (party formerly led by president-elect Peter Pellegrini) didn’t approach the EP election as a priority since it nominated less well-known politicians.

According to Juraj Marušiak from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the history of parties that were able to generate a president - be it Ivan Gašparovič or Rudolf Schuster - but then the voters lost interest in them, may repeat in the case of Hlas-SD following the example of parties like HZD.

Karol Lovaš from the Institute of Communication Studies of Charles University in Prague claims that the current Hlas-SD chairman Matúš Šutaj Eštok is faced with a choice - either he will start to approach the politics of Robert Fico or he will find his own way. The Slovak National Party, which failed in the EP elections, is also facing a decision. According to Lovaš, nationalists are fighting with their identity and it is necessary to have a continuous dialogue with their voters.

For this reason, a part of nationally oriented voters could have casted their vote for the far-right Republika party, which is copying the former success of the ĽSNS (former party of far-right politician Marián Kotleba). Lovaš views the future of far-right parties as a big challenge for Slovakia in the days to come.

At the same time, experts point out that Slovakia remains significantly polarized after the European elections.

Matej Baránek RTVS.