2023 Slovak parliamentary election

2023 Slovak parliamentary election

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All 150 seats in the National Council 76 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	68.5% 2.7pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Robert Fico Michal Šimečka Peter Pellegrini Party SMER–SD PS HLAS–SD Seats won 42 32 27 Seat change 4 32 New party Popular vote 681,017 533,136 436,415 Percentage 23.0% 18.0% 14.7% Swing 4.7 pp 11.0 pp New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Igor Matovič Milan Majerský Richard Sulík Party OĽaNO and Friends KDH SaS Seats won 16 12 11 Seat change 49 12 2 Popular vote 264,137 202,515 187,645 Percentage 8.9% 6.8% 6.3% Swing 21.9 pp 2.1 pp 0.1 pp   Seventh party   Leader Andrej Danko Party SNS Seats won 10 Seat change 10 Popular vote 166,995 Percentage 5.6% Swing 2.4 pp
Results of the election, showing vote strength by district
Prime Minister before election Ľudovít Ódor (acting) Independent Elected Prime Minister Robert Fico Smer-SD

Early parliamentary elections were held in the Slovak Republic on 30 September 2023 to elect members of the National Council. Regular elections were scheduled to be held in 2024. However, on 15 December 2022 the government lost a no-confidence vote. ^[1] Subsequently, the National Council amended the Constitution so that an early election could be held on 30 September 2023. ^[2] This was the first snap election in the country since 2012.

The left-wing populist and social conservative Direction – Social Democracy (Smer-SD), led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico, emerged as the largest party, winning 42 seats. The social-liberal and pro-European Progressive Slovakia (PS) came in second, with 32 seats. Former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini's social-democratic Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas-SD), which split from Smer-SD in 2020, came in third with 27 seats. The conservative OĽaNO and its allies won 16 seats, less than a quarter of their total in the 2020 election. The Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and the right-wing populist Slovak National Party (SNS) re-entered the National Council after failing to achieve the vote threshold in 2020, winning twelve and ten seats respectively. The classical liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) won eleven seats, tying the 2012 election as their worst result since the party's founding. ^[3]

As no single party or alliance reached the 76 seats needed for a majority, a coalition government was needed. A coalition government of Smer-SD, Hlas-SD, and SNS was formed. A new government with Robert Fico as prime minister was sworn in on 25 October 2023. ^[4]

Background

Prior to the previous election, the Slovak Republic experienced a period of political turbulence, triggered by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in 2018. The incident led to widespread protests and the resignation of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico. ^[5]

The election itself was won by the movement of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) led by Igor Matovič. The party emerged as the victor, gaining over a quarter of the popular vote, which translated to 53 seats in the 150-seat National Council. OĽaNO formed a coalition government with several other parties, ending the long-standing dominance of Direction – Social Democracy (SMER–SD). ^[6]

Electoral system

The 150 members of the National Council were elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency with an electoral threshold of 5% for single parties, 7% for coalitions of two or three parties, and 10% for coalitions of four or more parties. The election used the open list system, with seats allocated using largest remainder method with Hagenbach-Bischoff quota, a variant of the D'Hondt method. ^[7] Voters were able to cast up to four preferential votes for candidates of the selected party. ^[8]

All citizens of the Slovak Republic were allowed to vote except for citizens under 18 years of age, felons in prison convicted of serious offenses, and people declared ineligible to perform legal acts by court. Voters abroad on election day were allowed to vote by mail. ^[9] All citizens, who were 21 years of age or older on the election day and are permanent residents of Slovakia, were allowed to run as candidates except for prisoners, convicted felons, and those declared ineligible to perform legal acts by court. ^[10] All participating parties must register 90 days before election day and pay a deposit of €17,000 which would be refunded to all parties gaining at least 3% of the votes.

Voters not present in their electoral district at the time of the elections were allowed to request a voting certificate (voličský preukaz), which allowed them to vote in any district regardless of their residency. Voters abroad on election day were allowed to request a postal vote. According to the Central Election Committee, approximately 72,000 citizens of the Slovak Republic living abroad had requested a postal vote for the election. The deadline for requests passed on 9 August 2023.

Composition of the National Council

Main article: List of members of the National Council of Slovakia, 2020–2023

At the first parliamentary session on 20 March 2020, 6 parliamentary groups were established: OĽaNO, Smer, We Are Family, ĽSNS, SaS and For the People.

Group/party				Ideology	Leader	Deputies
						Elected 2020	Incumbent 2023
	OĽaNO and Friends		OĽaNO Ordinary People and Independent Personalities	Conservatism	Igor Matovič	43 / 150	29 / 150
			KÚ Christian Union	Conservatism	Anna Záborská	5 / 150	5 / 150
			NOVA	Conservatism	Gábor Grendel	2 / 150	2 / 150
			For the People [lower-alpha 1]	Liberal conservatism	Veronika Remišová	12 / 150	1 / 150
	Smer Direction – Social Democracy			Left-wing nationalism	Robert Fico	38 / 150	27 / 150
	We Are Family			National conservatism	Boris Kollár	17 / 150	16 / 150
	SaS Freedom and Solidarity			Right-liberalism	Richard Sulík	13 / 150	20 / 150
	Hlas [lower-alpha 2] Voice – Social Democracy			Social democracy	Peter Pellegrini		11 / 150
	ĽSNS [lower-alpha 3] Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia			Neo-Nazism	Marian Kotleba	14 / 150	7 / 150
	Republic [lower-alpha 4]			Neo-fascism	Milan Uhrík		5 / 150
	For the People [lower-alpha 5]			Liberal conservatism	Veronika Remišová	12 / 150	1 / 150
	Change from Below [lower-alpha 6]			Liberal conservatism	Ján Budaj	3 / 150	0 / 150
	Life [lower-alpha 7] Life – National Party			Christian right	Tomáš Taraba	3 / 150	3 / 150
	PS [lower-alpha 8] Progressive Slovakia			Social liberalism	Michal Šimečka		1 / 150
	Democrats [lower-alpha 9]			Liberal conservatism	Eduard Heger		16 / 150

Television debates

2023 Slovak parliamentary election
Date	Broadcasters	P Present   S Surrogate   NI Not invited   A Absent   I Invited   N No debate
		OĽANO	Smer–SD	SR	ĽSNS	PS	D	SaS	KDH	Aliancia	MF	SNS	Modrí, Híd	Hlas–SD	REP	Piráti	PRINCÍP	SOS	KSS	VB	SPRAVODLIVOSŤ	SHO	MySlovensko	SRDCE	SDKÚ-DS	KARMA
3 Sep 2023 [11]	JOJ 24 (150th candidates)	P Matovič	P Bekmatov	P Klus	NI	A Kusá	NI	P Hlina	P F. Majerský	NI	NI	P Huliak	NI	A L. Pellegrini	P Mazurek	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
19 Sep 2023 [12]	Jednotka/RS	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Kaliaš	S Smolka	NI	P Stanovič	NI	NI	P Panenka	NI	NI	P Szaboová
20 Sep 2023 [12]	TV JOJ/JOJ 24	P Matovič	NI	P Kollár	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Majerský	NI	NI	P Danko	NI	NI	P Uhrík	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
20 Sep 2023 [12]	Jednotka/RS	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Šubová	NI	NI	P Hrdlička	NI	P Chlebo	P Švec	NI	NI	P Rybárik	NI
21 Sep 2023 [12]	TV JOJ/JOJ 24	NI	P Fico	NI	NI	P Šimečka	NI	P Sulík	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Pellegrini	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
21 Sep 2023 [12]	Jednotka/RS	NI	NI	NI	S Schlosár	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Rajtár	NI	S Schwarzbacher	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Tokár	NI	NI
22 Sep 2023 [12] [13]	TV Markíza	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Kaliaš	P Hanuliak	NI	P Stanovič	P Chlebo	P Švec	NI	NI	NI	P Szaboová
23 Sep 2023 [12] [14]	TV Markíza	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Šubová	NI	NI	P Hrdlička	NI	NI	NI	P Panenka	S Kováč	P Rybárik	NI
24 Sep 2023 [12] [15]	TV Markíza	NI	NI	NI	S Kotleba	NI	S Letanovská	NI	NI	P Forró	P Šimon	NI	P Dzurinda	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
25 Sep 2023 [12] [16]	Jednotka/RS	P Jurinová	NI	NI	NI	NI	S Naď	NI	NI	S Gyimesi	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
25 Sep 2023 [12] [17]	TA3	S Remišová	NI	S Krajniak	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Majerský	P Forró	NI	P Danko	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
25 Sep 2023 [12] [18]	TV Markíza	P Matovič	A Fico	P Kollár	NI	P Šimečka	NI	P Sulík	P Majerský	NI	NI	P Danko	NI	S Tomáš	P Uhrík	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
26 Sep 2023 [12] (cancelled) [19]	TV Markíza	N Matovič	N Fico	NI	NI	N Šimečka	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	N Pellegrini	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
26 Sep 2023 [12] [20]	Jednotka/RS	NI	NI	S Pčolinský	NI	NI	NI	S Gröhling	S Hajko	NI	NI	P Danko	NI	NI	S Mazurek	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
26 Sep 2023 [12] [21]	TA3	NI	P Fico	NI	NI	P Šimečka	NI	P Sulík	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Pellegrini	P Uhrík	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI
27 Sep 2023 [12]	Jednotka/RS	NI	P Fico	NI	NI	P Šimečka	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	P Pellegrini	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI	NI

Opinion polls

This section is an excerpt from Opinion polling for the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election § Graphical summary.[ edit ]

A LOESS graph displaying the polls for the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election.

Issues and developments

2023 election issues included high inflation, Slovakia's position on the war in Ukraine and the related global energy crisis, COVID-19, internal fights within the previous government, corruption scandals and immigration; ^{[22] [23]} questions of rights and values (particularly LGBTQ+ issues) were covered during the campaign by Al Jazeera English, BBC ^{[23] [24]} and Pravda. ^[25]

By the week of the election, popularity polls indicated that the two strongest parties were the Progressive Slovakia (led by pro-European Michal Šimečka, a member of the European Parliament (EP) since 2019, and EP Vice-President since 2022, who has committed to maintaining support for Ukraine) and Smer-SD (headed by Robert Fico, three-time former prime minister, who has committed to ending Slovakia's support for Ukraine); however, neither appeared to be commanding a majority, and the BBC projected neither would top 20% of the vote, ^[24] so each would have to attempt to build a coalition with other parties to achieve the majority needed to rule. ^{[22] [23] [24]} Consequently, as many as 10 parties could wind up in the government. ^[24]

The third-largest party, which tipped the balance in favor of Robert Fico, is Hlas–SD (Voice), the moderate-left party of Peter Pellegrini (formerly of Smer-SD, and former prime minister, 2018–20).

Results

Results of the election, showing vote strength by commune.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Direction – Social Democracy	681,017	22.95	42	+4
	Progressive Slovakia	533,136	17.96	32	+32
	Voice – Social Democracy	436,415	14.70	27	New
	OĽaNO and Friends	264,137	8.90	16	–49
	Christian Democratic Movement	202,515	6.82	12	+12
	Freedom and Solidarity	187,645	6.32	11	–2
	Slovak National Party	166,995	5.63	10	+10
	Republic	141,099	4.75	0	New
	Alliance	130,183	4.39	0	0
	Democrats	87,006	2.93	0	0
	We Are Family	65,673	2.21	0	–17
	People's Party Our Slovakia	25,003	0.84	0	–17
	Communist Party of Slovakia	9,867	0.33	0	New
	Pirate Party – Slovakia	9,358	0.32	0	New
	Modrí, Most–Híd	7,935	0.27	0	New
	Hungarian Forum	3,486	0.12	0	New
	MySlovensko	2,786	0.09	0	New
	Karma	2,407	0.08	0	New
	Common Citizens of Slovakia	2,401	0.08	0	New
	HEART Patriots and Pensioners – Slovak National Unity	2,315	0.08	0	New
	Princíp	1,817	0.06	0	New
	99% – Civic Voice	1,335	0.04	0	0
	Slovak Revival Movement	1,332	0.04	0	0
	Patriotic Bloc	1,262	0.04	0	New
	Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party	771	0.03	0	New
Total		2,967,896	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		2,967,896	98.83
Invalid/blank votes		35,052	1.17
Total votes		3,002,948	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		4,388,872	68.42
Source: Results

Results by region

Region	Smer–SD	PS	Hlas–SD	OĽaNO and Friends	KDH	SaS	SNS	Republic	Alliance	Democrats	We Are Family	People's Party Our Slovakia	KSS	Other parties
Bratislava Region	18.54	31.00	10.36	6.17	4.90	12.50	4.31	3.14	0.91	4.43	1.78	0.57	0.20	1.08
Trnava Region	22.01	17.07	12.11	9.40	4.56	5.36	4.43	4.38	12.69	2.92	2.19	0.81	0.40	1.56
Trenčín Region	29.47	16.63	16.40	5.93	5.44	5.63	7.28	5.45	0.03	2.84	2.22	1.06	0.46	1.03
Nitra Region	25.31	14.42	14.40	7.47	4.06	4.80	4.51	4.46	13.91	2.19	2.01	0.80	0.26	1.24
Žilina Region	25.79	15.51	16.04	6.90	9.38	5.56	8.11	5.61	0.02	2.80	2.02	0.96	0.34	0.89
Banská Bystrica Region	22.89	14.96	19.76	7.41	4.29	5.14	6.53	5.18	5.17	2.40	2.73	1.33	0.43	1.67
Prešov Region	22.04	10.83	16.16	14.78	14.07	4.10	5.73	5.22	0.07	2.65	2.36	0.63	0.31	0.98
Košice Region	21.10	14.68	15.08	13.46	6.80	5.74	4.38	4.97	5.44	2.98	2.75	0.76	0.33	1.41
Foreign	6.10	61.70	2.46	3.81	3.31	10.80	3.79	3.20	0.47	2.50	0.55	0.38	0.04	0.76
Total	22.94	17.96	14.70	8.89	6.82	6.32	5.62	4.75	4.38	2.93	2.21	0.84	0.33	1.16

Aftermath

As analysts predicted, Peter Pellegrini's Hlas-SD played the role of kingmaker in the "jockeying" that characterized the election's aftermath. ^[26] Two viable coalitions emerged: one consisting of Fico's Smer-SD, Hlas-SD, and SNS; the other of Hlas-SD, PS, KDH, and SaS. On 2 October 2023, two days after the election, president Zuzana Čaputová tasked Robert Fico, as the leader of the now-largest parliamentary party, with forming a government within 14 days. On 3 October, she held "informal discussions" with PS's leader Michal Šimečka about the possibility of a PS-led coalition before meeting with Pellegrini and KDH's Milan Majerský. Following this meeting, Peter Pellegrini stated that his party was not ruling out either coalition.

According to SNS leader Andrej Danko, the ensuing negotiations revolved around Peter Pellegrini's future role. Robert Fico allegedly offered Pellegrini the role of Speaker of the National Council, while Michal Šimečka was willing to support Peter Pellegrini for Prime Minister in exchange for PS receiving the Ministry of the Interior. ^[27] On 10 October, Hlas-SD announced that it had rejected PS's offer. ^{[28] [29]} On 11 October, Smer-SD, Hlas-SD, and SNS ratified their coalition agreement, according to which they were to receive 6, 7, and 3 ministerial portfolios, respectively. ^{[30] [31] [32]}

On 12 October, the Party of European Socialists (PES) suspended Smer-SD and Hlas-SD over their plans to enter into coalition with SNS, which the PES views as a "radical-right party." ^[33] One week later, on 19 October, Zuzana Čaputová announced she would not approve the coalition government's nominee for Minister of Environment, Rudolf Huliak (SNS), due to his avowed climate change denialism. This delayed the swearing-in of the new government. ^{[34] [35] [36]} After the coalition partners replaced Rudolf Huliak with Tomáš Taraba (SNS) as their nominee for the post, Zuzana Čaputová accepted the coalition's government. She swore in the new government, with Robert Fico at its helm, on 25 October. ^{[37] [4] [38]}

Notes

1. In September 2021, For the People parliamentary group dissolved after it fell below the required threshold of 8 deputies.
2. In June 2020, 11 deputies elected for Smer–SD left its parliamentary group to found Hlas.
3. In April 2022, ĽSNS parliamentary group dissolved after it fell below the required threshold of 8 deputies.
4. In January 2021, 5 deputies elected for ĽSNS left its parliamentary group to found Republic.
5. In September 2021, For the People parliamentary group dissolved after it fell below the required threshold of 8 deputies.
6. In December 2022, Change from Below terminated its alliance with OĽaNO and its 3 deputies elected on a joint list left OĽaNO parliamentary group.
7. In May 2020, Život terminated its alliance with ĽSNS and its 3 deputies elected on a joint list left ĽSNS parliamentary group.
8. In March 2021, a deputy elected for For the People left its parliamentary group to join PS
9. In February 2021, a deputy elected for For the People left its parliamentary group to join SPOLU. In March 2023 several deputies from the OĽANO group joined the Democrats.

References

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