Fico’s pro-Russian party leads in Slovakia, but its support fades

Former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party remains the leader of the Slovak election campaign, but it is losing ground to liberal Progressive Slovakia in the days before the parliamentary elections.

This is evidenced by a Focus agency poll results. The survey was conducted at the request of the Slovak TV channel Markiza.

A survey of 1,017 Slovak voters conducted on 22-26 September showed that support for Smer-SD is 18.0% against 16.6% for Progressive Slovakia, which is not currently represented in parliament.

They are followed by former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini’s Voice party (13.7 per cent), which has slipped in the polls, and OlaNO (Ordinary People and Common Citizens; 8.2 per cent), which is rehabilitating itself.

The Focus poll predicts that eight parties will enter the Slovak parliament, and a majority government will need the support of at least three of them.

Earlier, a survey by NMS Market Research showed for the first time that the Progressive Slovakia political movement could win, while Smer-SD lost its majority.

Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová stated that the election in Slovakia, which will be held on September 30, will test the vulnerability of public opinion in European countries to online disinformation.

Read more: Slovakia’s election possible outcome and disinformation impact

Věra Jourová, who is the European Commission’s chief digital affairs officer, said that the Slovak elections would be a test of how vulnerable public opinion is to “weapons of mass manipulation, backed by millions of euros” that Moscow is using to influence the outcome of the upcoming vote, Politico reported.

Read also: Slovakia Election 2023 and possible pro-Russian revanche – a headache for the West 

Earlier in September, European Commission officials and the Slovak media regulator held a series of meetings in Bratislava with the participation of many media companies, including social media, and stressed the need to do more to combat online disinformation campaigns.

According to a research, there are 253 disinformation-peddling and pro-Kremlin media in Slovakia, and more than 1800 Facebook pages and open groups sharing pro-Russian propaganda. They are pushing for anti-EU and anti-Ukraine sentiments and support Fico and Smer party’s position.

The pro-Russian sentiment is often based on common Slavic origins and benefits from economic relations. However, Russian disinformation media and pages have become more cunning, and the fakes are more challenging to identify and debunk, the experts say. 

Read more: Slovakia 2023 Election: combatting disinformation under DSA

In 2022, at the initiative of the European Commission, 44 organisations – media, social media, fact-checkers and advertising associations – agreed on the Code of Practice on Disinformation. In addition, the EU’s Digital Services Act requires large online platforms with more than 45 million EU users to take measures to prevent disinformation campaigns.