Slovakian voters want a change of course

Although Robert Fico's left-nationalist Smer has once more come out ahead in the Slovakian parliamentary elections, Fico no longer has partners with whom he can build a majority government. That task will in all probability now fall to four centre-right parties. The business paper Hospodářské noviny speaks of a "revolution" and compare's Fico's loss of power with the end of former prime minister Vladimir Mečiar's term in office in 1998: "Politically, the elections have weakened both the populism and the nationalism that have been a constant part of Slovakian politics for the past twenty years. This is not only the end of Mečiar's time in parliament [whose party failed to attain the necessary 5 percent], but also that of the more radical of the two Hungarian [minority] parties that is closely allied to the conservatives in Budapest. ... The success of the party Most-Híd [bridge], which puts much stock in the reconciliation between Slovaks and Hungarians, comes as a slap in the face for nationalists on both sides of the Danube."

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