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Slovakia election: seismic shift as public anger ousts dominant Smer-SD party
Source: Agence France-Presse
Slovakia election: seismic shift as public anger ousts dominant Smer-SD party
Agence France-Presse
Sun 1 Mar 2020 03.57 GMT
First published on Sun 1 Mar 2020 01.37 GMT
Slovak voters have handed a resounding victory to the centre-right, anti-graft OLaNO opposition party in an election dominated by an angry backlash over the 2018 murder of a journalist investigating corruption in the eurozone state.
Having vowed to immediately push through anti-corruption measures should he win office, the OLaNO party leader, Igor Matovic, galvanised voter outrage over the murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee and the high-level graft their deaths exposed.
“We will try to create the best government Slovakia has ever had, with the help of the other leaders of the democratic opposition,” Matovic told journalists as he claimed victory after the exit poll results were announced for Saturday’s general election.
“It was the death of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova that woke up Slovakia,” he added.
Outgoing prime minister Peter Pellegrini conceded defeat as partial official results showed OLaNO outpacing his populist-left Smer-SD by six percentage points. Smer-SD has won big in every election since 2006, and in 2016 it claimed 28.3% of the vote.
-snip-
Agence France-Presse
Sun 1 Mar 2020 03.57 GMT
First published on Sun 1 Mar 2020 01.37 GMT
Slovak voters have handed a resounding victory to the centre-right, anti-graft OLaNO opposition party in an election dominated by an angry backlash over the 2018 murder of a journalist investigating corruption in the eurozone state.
Having vowed to immediately push through anti-corruption measures should he win office, the OLaNO party leader, Igor Matovic, galvanised voter outrage over the murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee and the high-level graft their deaths exposed.
“We will try to create the best government Slovakia has ever had, with the help of the other leaders of the democratic opposition,” Matovic told journalists as he claimed victory after the exit poll results were announced for Saturday’s general election.
“It was the death of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova that woke up Slovakia,” he added.
Outgoing prime minister Peter Pellegrini conceded defeat as partial official results showed OLaNO outpacing his populist-left Smer-SD by six percentage points. Smer-SD has won big in every election since 2006, and in 2016 it claimed 28.3% of the vote.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/slovakia-election-centre-right-olano-wins-poll-on-anti-graft-platform
