The first setback for Europe in Slovakia came in October 2023 with the election of the Russia-friendly, left-wing populist Robert Fico (*1964) as prime minister (for the fourth time). In January, there was some hope that he may have revised his position towards Ukraine (German article). The presidential election on April 6, 2024 brought another setback. Peter Pellegrini (*1975), another left-wing populist from another Russia-friendly party, governing in a coalition with Robert Fico, managed to win the presidential runoff election.
Already in June 2023, President Zuzana Čaputová (*1973) announced that she would not stand for reelection. The pro-European and pro-Western head of state said she had no longer the strength to face the attacks on her and her family.
The race was wide open but, as during the legislative election, the left-wing populist camp used dirty tactics, warning not only of a kind of LGBT+ dictatorship, but also of Slovakia being forced to send ground troops into Ukraine to fight Russia; anyway, it’s not up to the president, whose role is largely ceremonial, to decide to send troops into Ukraine.
In the first round of the 2024 Slovak presidential election, the pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine social-democrat, former prime minister and speaker of the National Council (Lower House) Peter Pellegrini had only won 37.03% of the vote, clearly behind Ivan Korčok (*1964) with 42.52%. The independent Ivan Korčok is a former ambassador to Germany and the USA, who served as foreign minister in the cabinets of the prime ministers Matovič und Heger.
In the second round of the presidential election, voter turnout reached 61.1%, a substantial increase in comparison with the first round of March 23, 2024 with only 51.9%. Peter Pellegrini managed to mobilize more voters than Ivan Korčok, a pro-Western, pro-EU and pro-Ukraine candidate who has been a vocal critic of the populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
In addition, in the second round, the left-wing populist Peter Pellegrini could count on the majority of first round supporters of the independent, Russia-friendly Štefan Harabin who had finished third with 11.74% of the vote, as well as many Slovaks who had voted for the fourth placed candidate of the Hungarian minority, Krisztián Forró, who had won 2.91% in the first round.
In the end, the runoff on April 6, 2024 brought a clear victory for the Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas–SD) candidate Peter Pellegrini with 53,12% of the vote, with Ivan Korčok ending up with only 46.87%. The independent candidate had enjoyed the support of the center-right opposition parties, still weakened by infighting, which had already cost them the government position.
During the presidential campaign Peter Pellegrini dismissed fears of him changing Slovakia’s foreign policy in favor of Russia. He said that Slovakia was clearly ankered in the European Union and NATO, that he wanted just to defend Slovakia’s national interests. Nevertheless, Putin and his gangster regime were surley celebrating his victory.
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Peter Pellegrini in 2024, photographed by (c) Xavier Lejeune/European Union; via Wikipedia/Wikimedia.
Article added on April 8, 2024 at 09:02 German time.
