Slovakia has elected its next president: Pellegrini defeats Korčok

Turnout was 61.14 %, the second-highest after the elections in 1999 when Slovaks cast their first direct ballots for their head of state. After votes were counted from all precincts, the Slovak Statistical Bureau drew that conclusion from the data.

The difference in the electoral gains for the final two candidates for the presidency was the closest in the history of Slovakia, but bigger than polls predicted ahead of voting yesterday. More voters turned out in the second round to decide on the new president; first-round turnout was 51.91 %.

Pellegrini won a clear majority of the regions in Slovakia. Korčok succeeded mainly in Bratislava and its environs, as well as in some precincts in northern, eastern and western Slovakia.

A total of 1.41 million voters chose Pelligrini. Korčok won a total of 1.24 million votes.

Outgoing Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová won election five years ago with roughly 1.06 million votes and a significantly lower turnout. Čaputová did not seek re-election and her term will end in mid-June.

Fiala, Lipavský and Pavel mention continuing good relations in their messages of congratulation to Pellegrini

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) has congratulated Pellegrini on his victory. Posting to the X social media site, Fiala said he believes the deep, excellent relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia will continue to develop further.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Pirates) said he believes Pellegrini will fully support Czech-Slovak collaboration and guarantee Slovakia’s firm position in European and transatlantic structures. Czech President Petr Pavel said he believes the tradition of exceptionally good neighboring relations will continue with the new Slovak President and looks forward to constructive cooperation.

Pavel entrusted Czech Ambassador to Slovakia Rudolf Jindrák with conveying his congratulations to Pellegrini last night directly at his campaign headquarters. News server Seznam Zprávy reports that the Czech Republic was the first country to do so.

Currently there are disagreements between the Czech Republic and Slovakia on several foreign policy subjects. The two countries have taken different positions, among other things, on Russia’s war on Ukraine and support for that state, which is under attack.

At the beginning of March, the Czech Government cancelled a planned joint cabinet meeting of both countries, sparking criticism from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, among others. Pellegrini had also objected to that decision, saying the Czech Republic should refrain from playing the “older brother” role with respect to Slovakia.

Former Czech Prime Minister and chair of the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement in opposition, Andrej Babiš, posted to X last night that he believes relations will improve between the Czech Republic and Slovakia under the leadership of Pellegrini, whose campaign he supported. He also said that the Slovaks had made the right choice and will have a proud president who will always defend their own interests abroad and will have the back of all of Slovakia’s citizens.

Tomio Okamura, the chair of another opposition movement, “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD), wrote to the Czech News Service (ČTK) that Pellegrini is the best choice for the Czech Republic as he prefers above-average Czech-Slovak relations based on mutual respect and non-involvement in each other’s domestic affairs. “He supports our close collaboration within the framework of the V4, he defends the Member State right of a veto at the EU, and he emphasizes national sovereignty as well as the need for each country to have its own, national, sovereign foreign policy,” Okamura opined.

The Czech European Affairs Minister Martin Dvořák (Mayors and Independents – STAN) posted to X that the elections were ultimately not as dramatic as had been expected. “Let’s congratulate the freely and democratically elected future president and wish for Slovakia that there will be no other dramas in store for it in the years to come. May all future elections in Slovakia be free and democratic,” he said.

The President of the Czech Chamber of Deputies and chair of the TOP 09 party, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, wished Pellegrini a great deal of success in his work to benefit Slovakia. “Allow me to also express my appreciation for his competitor, Ivan Korčok, who led a decent, fair, transparent campaign based on offering a positive vision,” she wrote to ČTK.

The President of the Czech Senate, Miloš Vystrčil (ODS), said on X that he believes support for the traditionally very close, good relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia will be their shared priority. Also commenting on X, some politicians with the governing ODS related the results of the Slovak vote with concerns for what it might predict about the destabilization of the EU.

According to Czech MEP Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09), the elections have confirmed that Slovakia is gradually becoming another Trojan horse of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the European Union and is going the way of Hungary.

Slovak media say what aided Pellegrini’s victory was his gamble on war as an issue to mobilize voters

Media in Slovakia are reporting that what aided Pellegrini’s victory was his gamble on the subject of war, his mobilizing of voters who support the parties in the current governing coalition, and his outreach to regions with a large Hungarian minority. According to the Denník N and Sme newspapers, the results of the voting mean that Slovak Prime Minister Fico has consolidated power, as Pelligrini was active for at least two decades in his Direction-Social Democracy (Směr-SD) party.

“A large part of the voters supporting the current governing coalition were doubtless also mobilized by the fact that an opposition candidate won the last two elections to the presidency. The voters wanted to reverse that trend. Things worked similarly in the neighboring Czech Republic, but on the other side of the spectrum – after two unsuccessful attempts to defeat Miloš Zeman, the opposition camp did not mobilize properly until the third election, when Petr Pavel won,” the newspaper Pravda reported.

According to that daily, Pellegrini was also aided by fearmongering that his rival, Korčok, would drag Slovakia into war. “While the president does not have such power, a large part of the electorate probably fell for that message. Fear is this strongest mobilization element,” the paper wrote.

“He is the legitimately elected president. The problem is the way he has become one. He made it to the Palace through lies, spreading fear, intentional polarization, an unfair campaign and fraternizing with extremists,” the daily Sme wrote about Pellegrini.

That paper predicts Pellegrini will not be an impartial president and that Fico has consolidated power through this presidential election. “Naturally, such a governing coalition can’t change the Constitution, but within the framework of today’s guardrails it can gradually control even more components of the state,” the daily said.

Sme went on to predict that the bullying of critical bureaucrats or police officers will continue and that these politicians will take a harsher approach toward critical media outlets as well, with non-governmental organizations next in line for such treatment. As for the daily Denník N, it predicted that “Peter Pelligrini will be president, but just in the portraits hanging in state offices and in the schools. The actual president will be Robert Fico, who will be the real president because he is indubitably the boss of the coalition group. Pellegrini hangs on his every word.”

“Pellegrini defeated his opponent with a surprising lead of almost 170,000 votes,” wrote the newspaper Plus Jeden deň. Polls had predicted a much closer result of the final round; the first round in March was won by Korčok with an unexpectedly high lead of almost 124,000 votes.

According to the online news server Aktuality.sk, Pellegrini’s strongest weapon was the coalition government. The governing parties, with the exception of the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), maintain high support in polls despite massive protests by civil society and the opposition which started after Fico’s government took office last year.

“Pellegrini himself has participated in one of the biggest, dirtiest anti-campaigns in the history of politics in Slovakia,” wrote Aktuality.sk. The news server went to report that governing politicians turned Korčok, a former diplomat, into a warmonger in the public mind.

Russian media celebrate the results of the Slovak vote, Ukrainian media are reserved

Media in Russia are reporting that a presidential candidate has won in Slovakia who refuses to supply Ukraine weapons and supports a quick resolution to the ongoing conflict. Media in Ukraine, which has been defending itself against full-fledged, armed aggression from Russia for more than two years, are recalling Pellegrini’s remarks about the war or aid to Kyiv and warning of his close relationship with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, calling his opinions pro-Russian.

“Pellegrini advocates ending the fighting in Ukraine,” the RIA Novosti wire service in Russia reported, reminding readers that the incoming president of Slovakia had “showed concern” over munitions supplies to Kyiv. The TASS wire service called Pellegrini “a supporter of a quick solution to the conflict in Ukraine”.

The Interfax wire service, on the other hand, emphasized the position of the defeated former head of Slovak diplomacy, Ivan Korčok, whom it described as advocating an “openly pro-Western position” with regard to international issues. The wire service also quoted Slovak Prime Minister Fico, in whose party, Direction-Social Democracy (Směr-SD), Pellegrini was active for two decades, as calling the incoming president somebody who “values peace”.

Moscow, whose soldiers launched an extensive military conflict in 2022 by invading Ukraine, claims that it is willing to negotiate with Kyiv about peace should their demands be realistic. Ukraine has warned over and over that it refuses to back down on its demands during any eventual peace talks, including the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from the territory of Ukraine and the renewal of the countries’ 1991 borders, i.e., including the Crimean peninsula as part of Ukraine.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in violation of international law. Ukraine’s demands have been rejected by Russia, which has since added four more regions of Ukraine to its own territory in addition to Crimea.

For Kyiv, engaging in peace talks without their demands being agreed to would mean that the conflict would be resolved through supporting the agenda of the Kremlin. The media in Ukraine are being cautious in their assessments of the incoming Slovak president.

Pellegrini’s positions are mentioned by media in Ukraine in association with Slovak PM Fico, who has been called “anti-Ukrainian” by the Ukrajinska pravda newspaper. The Ukrinform wire service points out that “Pelligrini shares the attitude of the Government of Slovakia regarding normalizing relations with Russia,” adding that the incoming president also opposes anti-Russian sanctions undertaken by the West.

The Unian wire service published an overview of Pellegrini’s statements about Ukraine, reminding readers, among other matters, that the president-elect had called in the debates for “immediately stopping the fighting and starting peace talks”.