Will Fico win the second round?
Eastern approaches 2014-03-18
Summary:
ROBERT FICO, the Slovak prime minister, won the first round of balloting in the country’s presidential election on March 15th. But the razor-thin margin of his victory might be the first crack in his otherwise sturdy political façade.
“I am slightly nervous,” Mr Fico (pictured) told reporters outside his Smer party’s headquarters shortly after polls closed. He finished in first place with 28% of the vote, but his runoff opponent, Andrej Kiska, a wealthy businessman turned philanthropist, finished just behind with 24%.
As Mr Fico struggled to rally his own voters, he unintentionally unified the political opposition. The country’s many disorganised, right-leaning parties look set to unify behind Mr Kiska in the second round. “It turns out that after two years of ruling, Fico does not appeal to his supporters as he did before; moreover, he mobilises his opponents and critics,” says Grigorij Mesežnikov, head of the Institute of Public Affairs (IVO) in Bratislava.
Radoslav Procházka, a right-leaning...Continue reading