Slovakia’s Progressives Put Extremists in the Shade

A new coalition of Slovak progressive parties have swept to victory in elections for the European Parliament, defeating both the ruling SMER-SD party and an active campaign from the far-right.

The PS/SPOLU coalition of pro-EU parties won 20.11 per cent of the vote, winning four of Slovakia's 13 seats.

Analysts say the victory was further evidence of a change in political climate following the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak last year. Public anger over the crime helped elect progressive political newcomer Zuzana Caputova as president in March.

In this week's EU elections, voters sent a strong message of support to the European Union by favouring pro-EU parties. Along with PS/SPOLU, such parties included the ruling SMER-SD, which got 15.72 per cent of the vote.

The only eurosceptic party to win seats was the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS), which got 12 per cent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Peter Pollak of the opposition OLANO party became the first Slovak Roma representative in the European Parliament.

Turnout in Slovakia hit 22.7 per cent, a significant increase from 13 per cent five years ago but not enough to lift the country from the bottom of the league table of EU turnout given voter interest elsewhere.

"We have shown that the future of Europe matters to us," President Caputova wrote on Facebook. "The spread of fear will never be the solution to any problem."

Here are some views from analysts on the results in Slovakia.

Marian Lesko, political analyst and commentator at Trend magazine

"The Slovak EU election has ended with two big and pleasant surprises. The first is that we have finally got through the 20 per cent threshold [for turnout], and although it is 30...