BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico won Slovakia's general elections on Saturday, March 6, on the back of a strident anti-refugee platform, but lost his parliamentary majority as a scattering of smaller parties including the extreme right won seats, according to exit polls.
A conservative leader described the outcome as a "big earthquake" in Slovak politics, and analysts cautioned that Fico would need to work hard to woo 2 or 3 parties to build a governing coalition.
An exit poll by the private Markiza TV station showed his Smer-Social Democrats (Smer-SD) party taking 27.3% (45 seats) of the vote, meaning Fico lost his 83-seat majority in parliament, which has 150 members.
This was followed by the liberal Freedom and Solidarity SaS with 13.3% (22 seats) and conservative OLANO-NOVA which took 11.2% (18 seats).
Nine parties entered parliament according to the poll, including the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS - 13 seats) with eight percent, touted by analysts as a possible Fico coalition partner.
It's "a big mishmash and a huge number of political parties in parliament", Fico told reporters as he arrived at his party's headquarters.
Igor Matovic, leader of the OLANO-NOVA party told Slovakia's TASR news agency: "This is a big earthquake."
"Fico would need at least 2 or 3 coalition partners to form a government," Abel Ravasz, a political analyst told Agence France-Presse.
"We have to wait for the definitive numbers until we see a clearer picture of the options," he added.
'Fascists in parliament'
The extreme right nationalist LS-Nase Slovensko (Our Slovakia - 11 seats) led by Marian Kotleba also made it into parliament for the first time with 6.8%, according to the Markiza poll.
"It will be a major disaster at the time when the Slovak Republic will preside over the European Union to have fascists in our parliament," Smer-SD MEP Monika Flasikova Benova said Saturday, referring to Bratislava taking over the EU's rotating presidency in July.
Two other parties, Most-Hid (Bridge) representing the ethnic Hungarian minority took 7.30% of the vote (12 seats), while the liberal Siet (The Net - 11 seats) party made its debut in parliament with 6.7%.
The Christian Democrat KDH took 8 seats, while newcomers the conservative SME Rodina took 10 seats.
In the run-up to Saturday's vote, analysts did not completely rule out a repeat of Fico's hollow victory in 2010, when a gaggle of liberal centrists and moderate right-wingers teamed up to govern after he won, but failed to form a coalition.
'Losing momentum'
Fico's strongly anti-refugee policies echo those of other hardliners in the EU's poorer ex-communist east, including Czech President Milos Zeman, Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and Poland's Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
All have shunned refugees as Europe grapples with its worst migration crisis since World War II.
Fico vowed to "never bring even a single Muslim to Slovakia" and filed a lawsuit against an EU-wide plan to redistribute refugees across the bloc.
As Slovakia gears up for EU presidency, Fico starkly warned that "we have reached the point when... Greece is likely to be sacrificed for the sake of Schengen", referring to the 26-nation passport-free travel zone.
Greece has become the major hub for asylum seekers in the EU. Athens shot back, accusing Fico of running "his election campaign with vitriol and human drama" and questioned his ability to lead the EU presidency.
Ravasz said Fico missed the mark with his unwavering anti-refugee drive as bread and butter issues like salary hikes for public sector workers came to the fore in the final days of the campaign.
"His favourite topic, the migrant issue lost a lot of momentum in the previous weeks and the new topical issues, namely the protests of teachers and health personnel, were not handled well by Fico."
Billboards blasting Fico's "Protecting Slovakia" message blanketed the country before election day. The strategy appeared to have convinced some despite very few refugees arriving, as most prefer richer nations.
Pensioner Stefan Kralko told Agence France-Presse Fico has his vote "because I feel safe."
But not all were wooed. Public sector workers who felt left behind by Slovakia's economic success staged strikes demanding wage hikes ahead of the vote.
To clinch his third term, leftist Fico could relaunch a controversial coalition with the far-right, eurosceptic Slovak National Party (SNS) he first forged for 2006-10, or team up with moderate right-wing and centrist parties, say analysts. – Laszlo Juhasz and Mary Sibierski in Warsaw, Poland, AFP / Rappler.com