Posted on 06/18/2006 12:04:44 PM PDT by lizol
Left-wing opposition wins Slovak election, looks to take office
by Chris Johnstone
BRATISLAVA (AFP) - Slovakia's left-wing opposition was poised to form a new government after winning most votes in the weekend general election, spelling the end of liberal economic reforms that have split the country.
The Smer party, which has vowed to scrap economic reforms, won Saturday's vote with 29.14 percent of the ballots, giving leader Robert Fico the opportunity to form a government, electoral officials said.
"For us, the result is fantastic," said 41-year-old Fico. "I hope that we will succeed in forming a coalition government which will be able to push through a left-wing programme."
Voters turned against center-right Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda after eight years in office.
He was battling for a third term to continue reforms that have brought Slovakia strong economic growth -- at 6.1 percent the highest in central Europe -- but have not solved the stubbornly high unemployment of 15.5 percent.
And the gulf has widened between Bratislava and the west of the country, where most foreign investment has flooded in, and the poorer centre and east.
"We are not in the position now to distribute the cards -- someone else will do that," Dzurinda said after the results were known.
President Ivan Gasparovic said Sunday he would invite Fico to try to form a government.
Fico pledged during the elections to scrap Dzurinda's centrepiece reform -- a 19-percent flat income and value-added tax.
Smer has also pledged to increase taxes on banks and big business, stop privatisations, abolish healthcare charges and introduce a generous minimum wage.
Fico will hold 50 seats in the 150-seat parliament against 31 for Dzurinda's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, which won 18.35 percent of the vote -- compared with 15.09 percent in 2002 -- in a poll marked by a low voter turnout of 54.6 percent.
The results gave the Hungarian Coalition, which champions the rights of Slovakia's Hungarian minority (about 10 percent of the population) and the extreme-right nationalist Slovak National Party 20 seats each in parliament.
The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia of former prime minister Vladimir Meciar -- which topped the polls in the 2002 elections -- won 15 seats and the Christian Democratic Movement 14 seats.
But the election surprise was the third place finish with 11.73 percent of the vote for the extreme-right Slovak National Party (SNS), which is hostile to the Roma (gypsies) and the country's half-a-million strong Hungarian minority.
National Party leader Jan Slota said it was a "symbolic success" to have come ahead of the Hungarian Coalition Party.
The SNS accuses the Hungarian minority of trying to redraw the country's boundaries and demanding autonomy.
Observers said the SNS appeals to a strong nationalism and disenchantment with the country's restructuring after the fall of communism.
"Support is especially strong in the north and centre of Slovakia, where people think Slovakia is threatened by the EU or by neighbouring countries," said Karol Morvay, senior analyst with the Health Policy Institute.
Fico, a lawyer, now faces the challenge of piecing together a coalition that can command a parliamentary majority.
Appearing in a television debate alongside leaders of the other five parties which made it into parliament, Fico kept his parternership options open.
"Every party that received five percent of the votes (the threshold of entry to parliament) has a right to discuss the creation of a government," he said.
A possible coalition could contain parties from the former opposition and outgoing centre-right government, he said, while insisting that he would not agree to any "right-wing programme".
A coalition including Dzurinda's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union would be a "great disappointment" to Smer voters, he added.
The center-right leader Sunday voiced concern about whether a new government that maintains Slovakia's political continuity and functions "with the required responsibility in the Euro-Atlantic area will be created."
One frequently touted coalition scenario would combine Smer with Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia and Slota's Slovak National Party. Another formula might see Smer teaming up with some of Dzurinda's former partners.
Alliances between Slovakia's alphabet soup of parties are complicated by a series of religious, ethnic, policy and personal differences.
Raise taxes and impose a "generous" minimum wage. Now that will reduce unemployment! /sarcasm
Or something like that, I'm sure.
$1USD = 30.07 SKK right now, so we'll see how this plays out, and my money is squarely on "not well for the Slovakians".
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