Populist social democratic party “Smer” of the former pro-Russian prime minister. Robert Ficowon the early general elections in Slovakia this Saturday, with 23.3% of the vote in the full count.

According to the first estimates, based on exit polls, the pro-European progressive party PS, led by the Vice-President of the European Parliament, was initially considered the possible winner. Michal Simeckawho ultimately received only 17.1% of the votes and became second.

The third party was the moderate Social Democratic Voice party (Hlas) of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, a former ally of Fico, with 14.9% with 99.5% of the votes counted.

After a high participation of 68.51% compared to 65.80% in the last elections, they are among National Council (Parliament) there are only seven parties, including the nationalist SNS with 5.6%, which has been in coalitions with the Social Democrats in the past.

Social democracy with a social message of protecting citizens, haunted by high inflation and also with anti-immigration rhetoric and criticism of aid to Ukraine, especially from Smer, spread and increased his vote, which only polled 18% in the 2020 election.

The left-wing formations of the political spectrum, Smer Fico and La Voz Pellegrini, co-religionists for two decades, now have 37% of the vote, and a third party such as the SNS would be enough to form a stable coalition.

In the case of Simeki’s progressives, their natural coalition partners would be liberals Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), which received 6.3% of the votes.