Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Although overall one cannot speak of either a success or a defeat for any party.
On Saturday 24 October in Slovakia, municipal and regional elections were held. Slovaks elected heads of eight self-governing regions (the regional governor equivalent) and mayors and village heads, as well as deputies of village, city, and regional councils. As reported by ZN.UA correspondent Jakub Loginov, the results proved surprisingly dull — all incumbent heads of self-governing regions, also called župans, retained their power; a similar situation occurred in Bratislava and other large cities.
Regarding party affiliation of mayors and village heads, the biggest winners were independents (1560), then candidates for the party ‘Voice’, which is a smaller coalition partner in the current government (260) and ‘Smer’ of Robert Fico (201). Next comes the Hungarian Union (159) and the pro-Ukrainian, Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) (156). In general, representatives of the ruling coalition won in smaller towns and rural municipalities, while the pro-Western and pro-Ukrainian opposition won in large cities. Therefore, at first glance, the big victory of ‘Voice’ and ‘Smer’ in this statistic does not reflect the real picture of political preferences. In Slovakia’s thousands of smallest communities (where candidates close to Robert Fico mostly won) live together 200-250 thousand people, i.e., fewer than in Bratislava, where liberal-left incumbent mayor Matúš Valló won.
As for deputies of city and village councils, the winner is also independents (9397 deputies, or 46,38%), but in second place is the opposition KDH with 2197 deputies (10,84%). Further down are deputies from the ruling parties ‘Voice’ (1825 or 9%) and ‘Smer’ (1599 i.e. 7,89%), then the Hungarian Union with 1401 deputies (6,91%).
The opposition won in Slovakia’s regional councils. Notably, competition from broad political coalitions was very popular, varying in each of the eight regions. In the coalitions, the party ‘Freedom and Solidarity’ (SaS) won 154 mandates, and Progressive Slovakia (PS) — 132. The same number, 132, of parliamentary mandates went to the party ‘Democrats’. These two parties clearly support Ukraine and sharply criticize Robert Fico for his pro-Russian position. The party ‘Slovakia’ of the former prime minister — the populist Igor Matovič — won 127 mandates, the same as the Christian Democratic Movement. Among parties of the government coalition, ‘Smer’ received 29 parliamentary mandates in regional councils, ‘Voice’ — 27, and the Slovak National Party (SNS) — 18. The pro-Russian party ‘Republic’ won 12 mandates.
In Loginov’s view, it is impossible to speak in absolute terms of either success or defeat for any party. If one considers whether the coalition or the opposition won more, the results concerning deputies and župans — favor the pro-Western, pro-Ukrainian opposition to the government of Robert Fico. But note — this does not necessarily signify change, as the opposition has been strong in local and regional self-government (except for the smallest rural communities) already before. The previous elections in 2022 brought a pronounced victory for pro-Ukrainian and anti-Fico forces in local self-government, and now Slovaks simply continued their mandates.
The most positive news for Ukraine, according to Loginov, is the retention of mandates for two pro-Ukrainian župans — the heads of the Prešov and Košice regions, which border Ukraine and implement many Slovak-Ukrainian projects. The župans will continue to be Milan Majerský (Prešov region) and Rastislav Trnka (Košice region). In Uzhhorod or Mukachevo they can sleep easily, since Slovak-Ukrainian cooperation will continue, and perhaps even accelerate.
Read more about why Kyiv should have closely watched Slovakia’s regional elections in the article “Fico is not the only problem: what Slovakia’s elections will mean for Ukraine” by Jakub Loginov.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "На місцевих виборах словаки обрали стабільність та співпрацю з Україною — журналіст". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
