{"id":1318,"date":"2023-10-01T00:25:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T04:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/a-populist-pro-russia-ex-premier-claims-victory-in-slovakias-parliamentary-elections\/01\/10\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-01T00:25:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T04:25:36","slug":"a-populist-pro-russia-ex-premier-claims-victory-in-slovakias-parliamentary-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/a-populist-pro-russia-ex-premier-claims-victory-in-slovakias-parliamentary-elections\/01\/10\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"A populist, pro-Russia ex-premier claims victory in Slovakia&#8217;s parliamentary elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) \u2014 A populist former prime minister and his leftist party won early parliamentary elections in Slovakia, staging a political comeback after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American message, according to almost complete results.<\/p>\n<p>With results 99.2% from some 6,000 polling stations counted by the Slovak Statistics Office early Sunday, former Prime Minister Robert Fico and the leftist Smer, or Direction, party led with 23.3% of the votes.<\/p>\n<p>The election was a test for the small eastern European country\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/slovakia-election-fico-ukraine-russia-democracy-smer-e9e04e59361d927918ff9e8e6e830694\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:support for neighboring Ukraine;elm:context_link;itc:0\" class=\"link \">support for neighboring Ukraine<\/a> in its war with Russia, and the win by Fico could strain <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ukraine-poland-us-slovakia-hungary-russia-2870e5e7652ea673c9d8fb352d123471\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a fragile unity;elm:context_link;itc:0\" class=\"link \">a fragile unity<\/a> in the European Union and NATO.<\/p>\n<p>Fico, 59, vowed to withdraw Slovakia\u2019s military support for Ukraine in <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Russia\u2019s war;elm:context_link;itc:0\" class=\"link \">Russia\u2019s war<\/a> if his attempt to return to power succeeded.<\/p>\n<p>The country of 5.5 million people created in 1993 following the breakup of Czechoslovakia has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded last February, donating arms and opening the borders for refugees fleeing the war.<\/p>\n<p>With no party winning a majority of seats, a coalition government would need to be formed.<\/p>\n<p>A liberal, pro-West newcomer, the Progressive Slovakia party, was a distant second, with 17% of the votes cast Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The left-wing Hlas (Voice) party, led by Fico\u2019s former deputy in Smer, Peter Pellegrini, was in third with 15%. Pellegrini parted ways with Fico after Smer lost the previous election in 2020, but their possible reunion would boost Fico\u2019s chances to form a government.<\/p>\n<p>Another potential coalition partner, the ultranationalist Slovak National Party, received 5.7%.<\/p>\n<p>Those three parties would have a parliamentary majority if they joined forces in a coalition government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/populist-pro-russia-ex-premier-034143324.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) &mdash; A populist former prime minister and his leftist party won early parliamentary elections in Slovakia, staging a political<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/a-populist-pro-russia-ex-premier-claims-victory-in-slovakias-parliamentary-elections\/01\/10\/2023\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}