A Change of Power in Slovakia?
Is a political change of power coming to Slovakia? The elections just held in Slovakia suggest that it may be. The coalition talks and statements from the individual parties in Slovakia are now eagerly awaited. Who will take the reins in Bratislava?
The parliamentary election in Slovakia resulted in an alliance of four centre-right opposition parties. According to the unofficial final results of the parliamentary election in Slovakia published yesterday, the four parties secured a total of 79 of the 150 seats in the National Council. The coalition that had been in power until now, made up of Slovakia’s social democratic party and two right-wing populist parties, managed to win only 71 seats. Although the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, remain Slovakia’s strongest party with 34.79 percent of the vote and 62 seats, they cannot rely on their previous coalition partners this time to form the new government in Slovakia: one of the former coalition partners failed to clear the five-percent threshold.
Das Regierungsgebäude in Bratislava.
Date: 30/09/2026
The second-largest political force after the election is now the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU), which won 15.42 percent of the vote in Slovakia, equivalent to 28 seats in the National Council. It therefore looks as though Slovakia may have its first female head of government: Iveta Radičová, the SDKU’s Christian-liberal candidate, is the favourite for the post. “Change is now within reach,” Radičová told the international press yesterday morning. However, in keeping with tradition, President Ivan Gašparovič will first ask the incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico, as leader of the theoretically strongest party after the election, to form a government in Slovakia.
Christian Bathen
Photo: André Sysnik
