Direction – Social Democracy

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.

Liberal candidate Zuzana Caputova, who criticizes the current government's policy, wins the first round in the presidential election in Slovakia with a great lead. This shows the results after the counting of 99.88 per cent of the votes, the France press reported, quoted by BTA.

The eco-activist, who claims that citizens want change, wins 40.55 per cent of the votes.

BRATISLAVA (REUTERS) - Slovak President Andrej Kiska appointed Peter Pellegrini as prime minister on Thursday to end a political crisis touched off by the murder of an investigative journalist that led to mass protests and the resignation of veteran leader Robert Fico.

Robert Fico has offered to resign as Slovakia's prime minister in an effort to quell a gathering political crisis sparked by the murder of an investigative journalist.

The Eurosceptic Slovak National Party (SNP) announced it was leaving the three-party ruling coalition. Party leader Andrei Danko, who is also chairman of the parliament, said the SNP is leaving the coalition because of the need to sign a new coalition agreement.

Slovak president Andrej Kiska appointed Robert Fico as prime minister on March 23 after Fico's leftist Smer party won the largest share of the vote in a March 5 election and formed a four-party coalition. 

The social-democratic party of incumbent Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico won the general elections held in the country on Saturday, but lost its parliamentary majority.

According to preliminary results based on almost all of the votes counted, Fico's Smer-Social Democracy party won the elections with 28.3 % of the ballots, which translates to 49 seats in the 150-member parliament.

Slovakia's leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said March 6 that he would begin difficult coalition talks after he won elections on an anti-refugee platform but lost his parliamentary majority as smaller parties, including the extreme right, scored first-time seats.

Slovaks are voting for a new Parliament on Saturday, with social-democrat Robert Fico widely expected to remain in office as Prime Minister.

Some 4.4 million people are eligible to cast a ballot.

Many opinion polls have suggested the incumbent's Smer SD party is tipped to win, possibly garnering up to 38.4 percent of the vote, but also losing its majority in Parliament.

Independent candidate Andrej Kiska won the presidential elections in Slovakia.

Kiska beat current Prime Minister Robert Fico in the second round of voting by 59.4% to 40.6%, according to reports of the local statistics office. The turnout was 50.5%, according  to Bloomberg.