Slovakia will strengthen its Russia-friendly trend: Peter Pellegrini from Prime Minister Fico's camp won Saturday's election.
He has only representative tasks – yet on Saturday Slovaks were completely in the thrall of the presidential election, which was also closely followed at the EU headquarters in Brussels: Peter Pellegrini, the left-wing parliament speaker, won the second election. Presidency. The race was close until the end, with Pellegrini on 53 percent just before the count closed.
In the first round of voting, independent former foreign minister Ivan Korgok (60), backed by the liberal, pro-Western opposition, won a surprisingly clear victory. The two candidates stood for two opposing political views in the polarized country: Pellegrini (48) is a member of the Russia-friendly government under Prime Minister Robert Fico, while Gorcak is his polar opposite.
A divided country
Slovakia is a very divided country – especially since Fico is back at the head of the government and the eternal boy is prime minister for the fourth time. The 59-year-old nationalist left-wing populist made his last comeback to date last year. Since then, like his counterpart in the neighboring country, Viktor Orban, he has pursued a more Russia-friendly course: he quickly ended state military aid to Ukraine, which has been attacked by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Arms supply will prolong the war; He, Figo, is for peace.
But the beefy politician made pronouncements on domestic policy that were not well received by many Slovaks or even in Brussels. So he changed the administration of the police and other key state officials and placed his informants at these control points. Fico has also launched a judicial reform, which the opposition is attacking with mass demonstrations as it threatens the rule of law. The EU Commission is also very concerned for this reason.
The prime minister's critics argued that Pellegrini would simply be his assistant in the presidential palace, while Figo would face Korčak as head of state.
