Voters look poised to oust the centre left Smer party that has dominated Slovakia’s political landscape for more than a decade in a national election on Saturday overshadowed by anger over high-level graft.
Opinion polls ahead of a two-week moratorium before the ballot pointed to a rapid rise for anti-corruption movement Ordinary People (OLANO), increasing chances it may form a centre-right majority with smaller conservative and liberal parties to outmanoeuvre Smer.
OLANO founder and leader Igor Matovic has pledged to clean up Slovak politics, an ambition encapsulated in his party’s slogan: “Let’s Beat the Mafia Together”.
The political shift in the euro zone member state, which has avoided fights with Brussels unlike its central European Visegrad Groups neighbours Hungary and Poland, started with the 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.
An investigation unearthed communications between a businessman now on trial for ordering the hit and politicians and judicial officials. He has denied the charges.
The killing led to the biggest street protests in the post-communist era, forcing Smer leader Robert Fico to resign, though his party’s coalition held on to power in the nation of 5.5 million.
In the European Parliament, OLANO is aligned with the center-right European People’s Party.
