Slovak elections seat more Romani men and women in the legislature than ever before
The early elections to Slovakia's unicameral legislature have been won by the DIRECTION-Social Democracy (SMER – sociálna demokracia - SMER-SD) party chaired by three-time former Prime Minister Robert Fico with 22.94 % of the vote. The liberal movement called Progressive Slovakia (Progresivní Slovensko - PS) won second place with 17.96 % of the vote.
Third place went to the VOICE-Social Democracy (HLAS-SD) movement of Fico’s former fellow party member Peter Pellegrini with 14.7 % of the vote. A total of six Romani men and women have also been elected to the legislature, an historically high number.
Fourth place went to the coalition of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) and the Friends of former Prime Minister Igor Matovič, with almost 9 % of the vote. The conservative Christian Democratic Movement (Křesťanskodemokratické hnutí – KDH) won almost 7 %, the liberal Freedom and Solidarity (Svoboda a solidarita – SaS) party of Richard Sulík won more than 6 % and the nationalist Slovak National Party (Slovenská národní strana – SNS) won 5.62 % of the vote.
Crises and polarization in society left their marks on the tempestuous election cycle. The campaigns were similarly polarizing.
One coalition and 24 movements or parties competed for votes. A total of 4,387,880 registered voters cast ballots, which means turnout was approximately 68.51 %; Slovak citizens living abroad also had the opportunity to vote by mail and 58,779 registered voters did so.
Opinion poll predictions mistaken about some parties’ results
Opinion polls before the elections said the SMER party, led by Fico, would be the front-runner, followed by Progressive Slovakia, led by Michal Šimeček. The polls also said HLAS, led by Pellegrini, would come in a close third.
Several other parties were also predicted to make it into the legislature by passing the 5 % threshold for a single entity. The favorite was said to be the Republic (Republika) party led by Milan Uhrík, which was founded on what used to be the People’s Party-Our Slovakia (Lidová strana-Naše Slovensko) of Marian Kotleba, several representatives of which have been convicted of promoting Nazism, and opinion polls had them oscillating at around 8 % of the vote.
The good news is that those predictions did not come true and Republic did not make it into the Slovak National Assembly. The polls also predicted that the coalition of OĽaNO and Friends would not make it into the legislature because coalitions need to win 7 % of the ballots cast.
Ultimately support for OĽaNO and Friends rose to almost 9 %, but it is true that former Prime Minister and Finance Minister Matovič has no potential for being invited into a coalition government after his campaign performance. The kind of a coalition government that will now be formed in Slovakia depends on negotiations, although the outlines of the possible coalitions are already clear.
Six Romani men and women in the Slovak legislature
Of the parties to be seated in the National Assembly, just a few included the issue of the inclusion of Romani communities in their electoral programs. Progressive Slovakia (PS), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) all have developed measures on the issue.
As far as the Romani men and women who ran for office, it can be anticipated that six will be seated in the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic. Romani candidate Irena Biháriová, a human rights activist and lawyer, ran on the candidate list of Progressive Slovakia in 10th place.
Biháriová is a past chair of the party. She won almost 38,000 preferential votes, but it can be inferred from their distribution that her voters are not mostly Romani community residents.
Romani candidate Ingrid Kosová, an advocate for Montessori education in Slovakia, was rather high up on the PS candidate list and led the education policy team for the party. Thanks to the 21,000 preferential votes she won, she has maintained her leading position.
Romani candidate Peter Pollák Jr. ran for the coalition of OĽaNO and Friends and was re-elected. He won 53,000 preferential votes, which bumped him up to third place on the candidate list, just behind party chair Matovič in second place and Erika Jurinová, current governor of the Region of Žilina, in first place.
Romani candidates Ladislav Bužo and Vilam Tanko also moved up on the candidate list through preferential votes. Romani candidate Anežka Škopová also won 12,233 preferential votes and became another Romani MP for OĽaNO in the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic.
It is exactly the preferential votes won by this coalition which demonstrate that it enjoys quite strong support in Romani communities, corresponding to the intensive campaign it ran there. The days to come will show what kind of a governing coalition comes together and its program statement will show what direction it will take when it comes to human rights and inclusion of Romani communities.
