Republic: We Value SNS's Offer to Cooperate, This Sets Them Apart from Smer

       Bratislava, 19 August (TASR) - The extra-parliamentary far-right Republic party has commended the efforts of the leadership of the junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) to seek a common approach to supporting candidates in the autumn local government elections, party chair Milan Uhrik told TASR on Wednesday, adding that Republic has taken note of SNS's call and will consider it.
        "We've taken note of SNS's call and will address it. I must commend the efforts of the SNS leadership to seek common ground, even if we don't always agree. There's a clear contrast here with the approach of Smer-SD, which looks out only for itself and supports only its own candidates and not ours. On the contrary, it's fielding its own nominees everywhere in defiance of this and is quite clearly trying to undermine our candidates' chances of success," Uhrik told TASR.
        The party's priority for now is to present its candidates in Presov and Zilina regions. "We'll wait to see how the campaign unfolds, which candidates the voters favour, and we'll consider what to do next accordingly," said the Republic leader, adding that the aim is to ensure that the national voice isn't lost in the elections and that patriots are represented as widely as possible at local level.
        SNS stated on Tuesday (18 August) that it wants to hold talks with the Republic party on supporting each other's candidates for regional governors and mayors. The party is ready to support Republic's vice-chair Milan Mazurek as a candidate for Presov regional governor if Republic will support SNS MP Adam Lucansky, who is running for Zilina regional governor.
        The combined local and regional elections will be held on Saturday, 24 October 2026.