Slovak voters elected the social democrat Peter Pellegrini, an ally of the populist pro-Russian prime minister Robert Fico, as the new president of their country, thus cementing the coalition government of social democrats, leftists and ultranationalists. Pellegrini, who is now president of Parliament, beat the pro-European candidate Ivan Korcok in the second round of the presidential elections on Saturday, presenting himself as a defender of peace and negotiation with Russia and accusing his opponent of being in favor of war because of his pro-Ukraine stance.
Pellegrini obtained 53.26% of the votes, compared to 46.73% for Korcok, according to the results revealed at dawn with the counting practically concluded. “We have sent a signal that the coalition remains stable,” said Pellegrini after knowing the result, which was larger than the polls predicted, and in which he obtained almost 70% more votes than in the first round, two years ago. weeks, in which he placed second behind Korcok.
Peter Pellegrini, 48, who was also prime minister, will succeed the liberal Zuzana Caputová as president on June 15, who has held the position of head of state for one term (it is five years) and decided not to run. to a second term. Caputová, whom Fico has repeatedly insulted and called an “American agent,” said she was not running for re-election because of the harassment and death threats she and her family have received. Pellegrini said her victory meant the government would have support in its objectives and would not face “an opportunistic and oppositional center of power,” referring to outgoing incumbent Caputová.
In Slovakia, the president, apart from the usual representative function of the head of state, has almost no executive powers, although he can veto laws or challenge them before the Constitutional Court. However, he appoints the judges of the TC, which could become important in the political struggle over Robert Fico’s reforms, which Brussels already views with distrust. Fico, who came to power for the fourth time in October 2023, has steered the Central European country’s foreign policy toward more pro-Russian views and initiated criminal law and media reforms, which have raised concerns about the weakening of the rule of law. .
His coalition cut off official Slovak arms shipments to Ukraine. Pellegrini is the leader of Hlas (The Voice), a party that is part of the Government led by the populist social democratic party Smer-SSD of Robert Fico, and with the ultranationalist SNS. Both Smer and Hlas have been suspended from the group of European Social Democrats for this pact with the ultras. The opposition candidate Korcok had warned that, if Pellegrini won, there would be no counterweight to the Fico Government, very close to the Hungarian ultra-conservative Viktor Orbán, and who maintains similar pro-Russian and anti-immigration positions. Still, Pellegrini is seen as more moderate than Fico.
“I will be a president who will support the government in its efforts to improve people’s lives; I will do everything possible so that Slovakia always remains on the side of peace and not on the side of war,” Pellegrini said at his campaign headquarters in Bratislava. Pellegrini has portrayed Korcok as a warmonger for his support of arming Ukraine and suggested that he could lead Slovak troops to war in the neighboring country, which Korcok denied. “I would never allow a Slovak soldier to enter Ukraine. “We must do everything possible so that people do not kill each other, on both sides,” Pellegrini said in the last television debate.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a key element of the electoral campaign in this country of 5.4 million inhabitants. The first round was held on March 23 and none of the eleven candidates reached more than the necessary 50%, so Pellegrini and Korcok went to the second round. Analysts expected a tighter result.
Peter Pellegrini belonged to Robert Fico’s party, was a minister in Fico’s previous governments, and even replaced him as prime minister after the fall of his government in 2018 as a result of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, murdered shot in his home. The double crime unleashed a wave of protests throughout the country that forced Fico to resign. He later left Smer-SSD to create his own party, Hlas, nominally social democratic but more centrist and liberal.
