After counting all votes, the populist candidate Peter Pellegrini wins the second round of the Slovakian presidential election with 53.12% of the vote.
According to official figures, Peter Pellegrini, the speaker of the country’s parliament, won the presidential election with 53.12% of the vote.
With 46.87% of the vote, he defeated his opponent Ivan Korčok, former Foreign Minister and well-known Slovak diplomat, a pro-European politician.
It’s worth noting that Korčok won in the Bratislava region, which includes the capital, by 66% against 34%. But in other regions, mostly rural, voters backed Pellegrini.
Pellegrini’s success as a coalition partner of anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico may allow him to centralize power in one hand, similar to his Hungarian colleague Viktor Orban, who shares pro-Russian rhetoric.
When Pellegrini is sworn in as president, he will have to step down as leader of the Voice Party. In such a case, it is quite possible that this party will simply join with Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party, giving Fico almost full control of the parliamentary majority.
“I am joining the coalition to guarantee the preservation of Slovakia’s western vector,” Peter Pellegrini declared last October after agreeing to form a coalition with Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party and Andrej Danko’s far-right Slovak National Party.
During the 2023 parliamentary elections, the Voice party held a remarkable position, having received a “golden share” even before voting. Its decision on who would join the alliance influenced whether Fico could return to power or pro-Western forces would form the government.
Fico’s main rationale for joining Pellegrini’s coalition was the prospect of a party split.
“The Voice was founded by Smer-SD members, and Pellegrini was appointed prime minister under this party’s quota when Fico was forced to quit due to widespread protests in the country in 2018.
Although Pellegrini positioned himself as a guarantor of Slovakia’s pro-Western policy, he made only rare remarks that contradicted the new government’s theses. Pellegrini refrains from condemning Fico on significant issues, including those that the EU has sharply chastised, thereby jeopardizing the country’s Western path.
Thus, Pellegrini becomes President of Slovakia, while Fico consolidates power in the country. The likelihood that Slovakia will follow Hungary’s lead, which is highly unfavorable for the European Union, has increased significantly.
