In elections for local and regional authorities in Slovakia held on Saturday, independent candidates and incumbent mayors received the majority of votes, while the far-right coalition received minimal support.
This is reported by Pravda.
On Saturday, the so-called "super-elections" were held for the first time in Slovakia, when the election of heads of cities and eight regions (regions), as well as local and regional deputies, took place on the same day.
Voters re-elected six out of eight regions. Ondrzej Lunter, the son of the former head of the region Jan Lunter, who decided not to participate in the elections, won in the Banskobystry district, and Branislav Bechyk, who was supported by the authorities and the opposition, won in the Nitrans district.
As for the mayoral elections, the vast majority of them were re-elected, only in one big city - Prešov - the head will change after the previous one refused to participate in the race.
Of the 419 deputies who were elected, 159 (or 38%) do not represent any party, another 54 represent the Hungarian national minority. Candidates supported by the liberal parties "Progressive Slovakia", "Freedom and Solidarity" and Team Bratislava received 27 deputies.
The "Voice" party of former Prime Minister Petro Pellegrini also achieved success, which will have 20 mandates in local councils, but at the same time, polls called it the most popular party in the event of early parliamentary elections.
And the far-right "Slovak National Party", "Alliance", "We are a family" and the SMER party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico (which came in second place in national polls) received only 15 deputies.
In general, despite active calls for early elections, as well as the government crisis in Slovakia, voters did not prefer the opposition parties. Slovak President Zuzana Čaputova has already welcomed the results, saying that "people have elected experienced, democratic candidates and have largely rejected extremism and populism."