Analyst Baranek: Election Brought Disaster for Christian Democracy

Bratislava, March 6 (TASR) – This is a disaster for Christian democracy in Slovakia, political analyst Jan Baranek told TASR when commenting on the result of 4.94 percent apparently gained by the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in the general election.

[KDH failed to reach the 5-percent support threshold needed to win seats in parliament. – ed. note]

“Three such parties, namely KDH, SDKU-DS (0.26 percent) and Siet (5.6 percent) posted significant falls in the elections, which means that something will have to happen on this part of the political spectrum,” stressed Baranek.

However, Baranek didn’t expect such a huge fall for Smer-SD (to 28.28 percent) and the result of Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (8.04 percent) was a surprise for him, as well. “It wasn’t first-time voters deciding about it. Kotleba has his voters, his electorate is broader,” he said.

The comeback of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) on 12.10 percent is also a challenge to be analysed, said Baranek. “It’s a big unknown to me,” admitted the political analyst. Support for SaS leader Richard Sulik started to grow over the past two election campaign weeks thanks to his appearances on the media. “He probably managed to persuade voters with SaS’s economic agenda, and people probably accepted his explanation for the fall of Iveta Radicova’s government [2010-12],” stated Baranek, referring to the fact that SaS was largely blamed for that government’s downfall at the time.

Baranek stated that the balance of power based on the election results doesn’t provide a basis for meaningful and functional coalitions. “Early elections are a very, very real possibility for resolving this stalemate situation,” he stated.

According to the Slovak Statistics Office’s unofficial preliminary results, the election was won by Smer-SD on 28.28 percent. Apart from Smer, another seven parties made it into Parliament: Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) – 12.10 percent, OLaNO-NOVA – 11.02 percent, the Slovak National Party (SNS) – 8.64 percent, Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) – 8.04 percent, We Are Family-Boris Kollar – 6.62 percent, Most-Hid – 6.5 percent and Siet – 5.6 percent.