2024-03-24 18:34:05
Although the polls before the Slovak presidential elections sent Peter Pellegrini to the top for a long time, Ivan Korčok eventually took over. But the real fight will begin now. The path to the office of the head of state leads through the convictions of supporters of the pro-Russian Štefan Harabin and non-voters.
The polls were clear about the two advancing to the second round. However, their order is a surprise, because the models predicted Peter Pellegrini’s victory for a long time. In the end, 42.4 percent of Slovaks voted for Korčok, 37 percent for Pellegrini. 120,000 more Slovaks voted for the former foreign minister, which is a significant difference.
“We need to do more to reach voters across the political spectrum,” Korčok said Saturday after the votes were counted. He thus announced a fight for the supporters of the other candidates who did not advance to the second round. For the most part, these are the votes of the third Štefan Harabin, who was voted by about a quarter of a million Slovaks.
Harabin has yet to issue a recommendation ahead of the second round. He stated that “my constituents know what to do.” In early February, he said in that regard that he would tell people to stay home in the second round. In the campaign, he also declared that he would not support Pellegrini. The current Speaker of the Parliament and head of the ruling Hlas party himself said on Saturday after the results were announced that he expected Harabin to speak to the voters before the second round. “I will contact him personally and then he may speak to his voters himself,” announced Pellegrini.
Harabin’s voters, however, declared in pre-election polls that roughly three-quarters of them would go to vote in the second round as well. According to the Ipsos model, 90 percent of this number plan to vote for Pellegrini. Since Korčok probably cannot count on the general support of Harabin’s supporters, the main question in the final of the presidential race will be how many of his voters will vote for Pellegrini and how many of them will stay at home.
“In two weeks, the closest presidential battle that Slovakia has experienced since the elections in 1999 awaits us,” wrote the Slovak daily SME in a post-election analysis. The voting was accompanied by a relatively high turnout, almost 52 percent. “The results of the first round showed that the voters of both main candidates are motivated above average. The question is whether they can convince those who did not vote,” he added. The second round will take place on Saturday, April 6.
Harabin’s voters may be distant in terms of values to the pro-Western Korčok: the former head of the Slovak Supreme Court and ex-minister of justice wants to withdraw from NATO. He also claimed that he would demand the neutrality of Slovakia, guaranteed by Russia, as president. But Korčok was more likely to look for what unites the two camps in the election staff on Saturday. “They also want what I want. For a better life here and for it not to be only government politicians who raise their salaries,” he added.
In addition to Harabin’s voters, supporters of other unsuccessful presidential candidates, such as Hungarian party leader Krisztián Forró, who received 2.9 percent of the vote, or former prime minister Igor Matovič, may play a smaller role.
Slovenský Denník N reported that Ivan Korčok won in the first round also because he managed to reach voters in big cities. “He didn’t hesitate practically anywhere where he had the potential to win votes,” the paper assesses. The diplomat claimed victory, for example, in Bratislava, where the voter turnout was above average – 61 percent – or the Banskobystrické district, where both presidential favorites come from.
The voting data shows that almost half of the eligible voters did not vote. Who will be the president will also be decided by who manages to mobilize them.