Parties agree deal to force out Slovak PM

SLOVAKIA’S POPULIST prime minister Robert Fico is set to be ousted despite winning last weekend’s general election, after four parties formed a coalition to force him from power.

Mr Fico’s Smer party easily won Saturday’s ballot with 35 per cent of the votes, but its partners in the current ruling alliance fared so badly that they lost their overall parliamentary majority to three centre-right parties and a group that represents Slovakia’s 10 per cent Hungarian minority.

President Ivan Gasparovic gave Mr Fico until next Wednesday to form a new government, but his chances of persuading any of the current opposition parties to join him in power appear to have disappeared with their announcement that they have formally signed a co-operation pact.

The four parties – the conservative SDKU, the Christian Democrats (KDH), the liberal Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS) and the ethnic Hungarian Most-Hid group – won a combined 79 seats in the 150-seat parliament. They plan to cut Slovakia’s budget deficit, fight corruption, attract new foreign investment and soothe fractious relations with neighbouring Hungary.

“The SDKU, SaS, KDH and Most-Hid parties, due to similarities in their political programme goals, express a joint will to form a ruling coalition, which will create a new Slovak government,” the parties said in a declaration.

They also agreed to support the candidature of leading SDKU member Iveta Radicova (53) to be Slovakia’s next prime minister – she would be the first woman to hold the post. A professor of sociology and former government minister, she lost to Mr Gasparovic in the 2009 presidential election.

“According to the declaration, I will be the future leader of the coalition,” Ms Radicova said.

“We have enough time to draft the programme , and we will put in every effort to deliver it as fast as possible.”

Ms Radicova said she would request talks with Mr Gasparovic and that the four-party coalition hoped to present a broad policy programme next Tuesday, the day before the expiration of the deadline given to Mr Fico to form a government.

Hopes are high among Slovak liberals that the new government will reverse what they call the previous government’s slide towards nationalism.

Mr Fico angered Hungary and Slovakia’s Hungarian and Roma communities and worried European Union officials by bringing the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) into government. The SNS lost support in Saturday’s election and only just scraped into parliament.