Roberto Fizzo, 59, is opposed to military aid to Ukraine as it fights Russian aggression.
Bratislava:
Weeks after being seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico suffered an unexpected defeat to the opposition Liberal Party in European Parliament elections on Sunday, his party announced.
Fico’s left-wing nationalist party, the Progressive Slovak Social Democrats, congratulated its new MEPs on their elections on its Facebook page, writing, “Winners of the elections: Progressive Slovakia.”
Mr Fitch, 59, opposes military aid to Ukraine as it fights Russian aggression.
The latest opinion polls showed him likely to top the vote, which was seen as a sign that the assassination plot would boost support for his party.
Progressive Slovakia (PS) won 27.81 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, giving it six seats in the European Parliament, according to results widely reported in Slovak media ahead of the official announcement.
Smer SD won 24.76% of the vote and won five seats in the 720-seat European Parliament.
According to the results, the far-right party “Republik” came in third with 12.53% of the vote and two seats.
Fitcho was shot four times at close range on May 15 as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting.
The shooter, identified by Slovak media as 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintura, has been charged with premeditated attempted murder and is in custody.
In a video released on Wednesday, Fico blamed the opposition for inciting the “hatred” that led to the attack.
Political analyst Daniel Kerekes suggested that the attack mobilised Socialist supporters to vote just as much as Smer Social Democrat supporters.
“It was not only Smer-SD that used the attacks to its advantage. The opposition parties also made great gains, especially the Socialists, whose voters are concerned about the situation in Slovakia,” he told AFP.
Michal Simecka, a former vice-president of the European Parliament and chairman of the PS party, said voters “sent a very important message to the government: you can’t do everything you want, so take it slow”.
Turnout was just under 35 percent, higher than in the country’s previous EU elections.
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