Slovak political parties are starting to show the first inclinations about potential compositions of the future government after the early elections take place in March 2012.
One possibility is a coalition involving Robert Fico’s opposition party Smer-SD and the Christian democrats of KDH, and although the policies differ greatly in some areas, both parties are maybe starting to realise that they could work together well, or at least better than with some other constellation.
Head of KDH Jan Figel admitted that the parties agree on many points and so there is scope for potential post-election collaboration. Figel still sees its current coalition partners, the SDKU party and Most-Hid as its most suitable partners, but he says co-operation with Smer-SD is not out of the question.
The Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS) is the only party rejecting outright any form of o-operation with Fico’s Smer-SD on grounds of principle as to what it did when in power between 2006-2010. Now many feel that the SaS party led by Richard Sulik has lost its coalition potential because of its defiance over the EFSF issue, but old grumps tend to take a back place when some MP seats are needed to form a majority after the elections.
Bela Bugar’s Most-Hid party is a little hesitant about if it could join forces with Smer-SD, but it is definitely not ruling out the possibility. Ironic considering the party has already rejected co-operation with its biggest rival for the ethnic Hungarian votes, the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), which did not make it into parliament in the elections last year, but which has more support from Budapest. Bela Bugar says his party would not work with a party that “abuses minority politics”.
Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party enjoys around 40% in the polls and so it looks set to take the lion’s share of the vote, but that didn’t help it last time when it found itself a few votes short of a majority when joined by the SNS. The other four parliamentary parties stuck together to form the four-party coalition government of PM Iveta Radicova with just 79 of 150 seats. A complicated situation that led to all kinds of conflicts and political blackmailing and, eventually, to its demise.
PM Radicova is expected to announce tomorrow at the SDKU party board that she will not run in the next elections. leaving the helm once more to Mikulas Dzurinda, so this alone could strike a blow at the SDKU member base. After the fiasco of the failed confidence vote in parliament, blog comments around Slovakia showed that many SDKU faithfuls would not vote for the party again. The SaS party could reap the fruits of that one.
@ George M .. cz some people are stupid .. And another diciple of Dzurinda is beggining to show .. Mr. Fico , lovely to see a man betray his country like him ..
Why would anyone vote for Dzurinda as PM ? The man who found plots against him everywhere and enemies of the State at every turn …the man who sold a building almost given to the SDKU by the Ba town council, then sold it the day after it came into their ownership, for 4 times the original amount …the man that thought that the SDKU dealings with the Kosice tax office, was all above board and transparent ?
Vote SaS for a better parliament !