Politics of Slovakia
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Politics of Slovakia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the parliament and it can be exercised in some cases also by the government or directly by citizens.
Executive power is exercised by the government led by the Prime Minister. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The President is the head of the state. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Slovakia a "flawed democracy" in 2022.[2][needs update] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Slovakia was 2023 the 18th most electoral democratic country in the world.[3]
History
[edit]Before the Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia was a socialist dictatorship ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, technically together with the coalition of the so-called National Front. Before the free democratic elections could take place after the revolution, a transitional government was created.
In 1989, President of Czechoslovakia Gustáv Husák was sworn in the Government of National Understanding (Czech: Vláda národního porozumění, Slovak: Vláda národného porozumenia) led by Marián Čalfa with the former being abdicated. It consisted of ten communists and nine non-communists with the aim to prepare for democratic elections, establish market economy in the country, and start preparing a new constitution.
Between 8 and 9 June 1990, the Czechoslovak parliamentary election of 1990 took place. Čalfa's second government disbanded on 27 June 1990 when it was replaced by the Government of National Sacrifice (Czech: Vláda národní oběti, Slovak: Vláda národnej obete), also headed by Marián Čalfa. From 5 until 6 June 1992, the last elections in Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak parliamentary election of 1992 took place. Čalfa's third government disbanded on 2 July 1992, when it was replaced by the Caretaker Government of Jan Stráský (Vláda Jana Stráského), headed by Jan Stráský. The caretaker government disbanded on 31 December 1992 together with the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
Due to federalism after the Velvet Revolution, two national governments (one for the Czech Republic, one for Slovakia) were created as well under the federal Czechoslovak government. In Slovakia it was headed by Milan Čič and it was established on 12 December 1989 and disbanded on 26 June 1990. Between 8 and 9 June 1990, the 1990 Slovak parliamentary election took place together with the federal Czechoslovak elections. Čič's government was followed by the First Government of Vladimír Mečiar (1990–1991), Government of Ján Čarnogurský (1991–1992) and the Second Government of Vladimír Mečiar (1992–1994).
Recent developments
[edit]In September 2023, populist left-wing Smer-SSD, led by former prime minister Robert Fico, won the general election, taking 79 seats in a 150-seat parliament with its allies, the centre-left Hlas and nationalist SNS parties. The three parties agreed to form a coalition government.[4] On 25 October 2023, Robert Fico became new prime minister of Slovakia, announcing that the new government will stop Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine.[5] At his first EU leaders meeting in Brussels, Prime Minister Robert Fico stated that Slovakia will not support further military aid for Ukraine nor support further sanctions against Russia due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6]
Legal system
[edit]The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was ratified on 1 September 1992 and became effective 1 October the same year (1 January 1993 in some parts). It was amended in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president and again in February 2001 due to EU admission requirements.
The civil law system is based on Austro-Hungarian codes. The legal code was modified to comply with the obligations of Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to expunge the Marxist–Leninist legal theory. Slovakia accepts the compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction with reservations.
Executive branch
[edit]| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Zuzana Čaputová | Independent | 15 June 2019 |
| Prime Minister | Robert Fico | Smer | 25 October 2023 |
The president is the head of state and the formal head of the executive, though with very limited powers. The president is elected by direct, popular vote, under the two round system, for a five-year term. In March 2019, Zuzana Čaputová was elected as the first female President of Slovakia. She was a member of the liberal Progressive Slovakia party, which did not have seats in parliament.[7]
Following National Council elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the president. Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister has to receive the majority in the parliament. From July 2006 till July 2010 the coalition consisted of Smer, SNS and HZDS. After the 2010 elections, a coalition was formed by the former opposition parties SDKÚ, KDH Most–Híd, and newcomer Freedom and Solidarity. After the major elections from 2012 until 2016, the whole government consisted of members and nominees of the party SMER-SD, which also had majority in the parliament. The 2016 Slovak parliamentary election gave a coalition of parties SMER-SD, SNS, and Most-Híd. After the 2020 Slovak parliamentary election, the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities won the election and Igor Matovič became the Prime Minister.[8] In April 2021, prime minister Eduard Heger was sworn in two days after the resignation of his predecessor Igor Matovič. Heger was a close ally of Matovic and deputy head of his Ordinary People party.[9][10]
Legislative branch
[edit]| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speaker of the National Council | Peter Pellegrini | Hlas | 25 October 2023 |
Slovakia's sole constitutional and legislative body is the 150-seat unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic. Delegates are elected for 4-year terms on the basis of proportional representation.
The National Council considers and approves the Constitution, constitutional statutes and other legal acts. It also approves the state budget. It elects some officials specified by law as well as the candidates for the position of a Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and the Prosecutor General. Prior to their ratification, the parliament should approve all important international treaties. Moreover, it gives consent for dispatching of military forces outside of Slovakia's territory and for the presence of foreign military forces on the territory of the country.
Political parties and elections
[edit]Suffrage
[edit]18 years of age; universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot.
Presidential election
[edit]The president is elected by direct, popular vote, under the two-round system, for a five-year term. Two rounds of the last election occurred on 16 and 30 March 2019.
Parliamentary election
[edit]Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (Slovak: Národná rada Slovenskej Republiky), are elected directly for a four-year term, under the proportional representation system. Like the Netherlands, the country is a single multi-member constituency. Voters may indicate their preferences within the semi-open list. The election threshold is 5%.
2020 parliamentary election
[edit]
The ruling coalition comprising Direction – Social Democracy (Smer–SD), the Slovak National Party and Most–Híd, led by Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini of Smer–SD, was defeated by the anti-corruption movement Ordinary People and Independent Personalities led by Igor Matovič. However, as no party or electoral coalition attained an absolute majority of seats, a post-election coalition was required to form a government.[11][12][13][14]
This election was also the first since 2006 where Smer–SD did not emerge as the party with the most seats in the National Council. Also, it was the first time that no party representing Hungarian community was elected. The coalition of Progressive Slovakia and Together failed to meet the 7% threshold for two-party coalitions to enter the parliament by only 926 votes, surprising analysts, as they had been several percentage points above the threshold required in opinion polls as recently as a few days before the election, and polled above the threshold in exit polls taken on election day. The coalition submitted an electoral complaint with the Constitutional Court on 12 March seeking a recount, although they did not have any expectation it would significantly change the results, and only did so in order to clear doubts about the democratic process.[15] In total 820,411 votes fell below the electoral threshold, which is 28.47% of all valid votes.
Results by region
[edit]| Region | OĽaNO–NOVA–KÚ–ZZ | Smer | We Are Family | ĽSNS | PS–Together | SaS | For the People | KDH | MKÖ/MKS | SNS | Good Choice | Homeland | Bridge | Other parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bratislava Region | 26.32 | 12.04 | 6.42 | 4.62 | 14.24 | 12.26 | 9.18 | 4.22 | 0.86 | 1.96 | 3.00 | 2.53 | 1.02 | 1.33 |
| Trnava Region | 28.08 | 14.58 | 7.37 | 6.59 | 5.98 | 5.35 | 4.67 | 3.08 | 11.44 | 2.19 | 2.13 | 2.20 | 4.83 | 1.51 |
| Trenčín Region | 23.97 | 23.44 | 9.82 | 9.23 | 6.57 | 5.64 | 4.55 | 3.85 | 0.02 | 3.95 | 3.34 | 3.52 | 0.19 | 1.91 |
| Nitra Region | 23.03 | 17.76 | 8.28 | 7.36 | 5.16 | 4.95 | 4.32 | 2.73 | 12.31 | 2.99 | 2.79 | 2.29 | 4.45 | 1.58 |
| Žilina Region | 24.94 | 20.58 | 8.52 | 9.71 | 6.02 | 5.59 | 4.72 | 6.60 | 0.03 | 4.73 | 3.23 | 3.51 | 0.16 | 1.66 |
| Banská Bystrica Region | 21.68 | 20.41 | 9.25 | 10.62 | 6.27 | 5.47 | 4.85 | 3.03 | 4.11 | 3.10 | 3.24 | 2.66 | 3.24 | 2.07 |
| Prešov Region | 25.63 | 20.99 | 8.39 | 8.50 | 4.37 | 4.08 | 6.15 | 8.37 | 0.04 | 3.69 | 3.54 | 3.51 | 0.70 | 2.04 |
| Košice Region | 26.28 | 17.54 | 8.36 | 7.76 | 5.46 | 5.19 | 6.51 | 4.41 | 4.66 | 2.65 | 3.07 | 3.09 | 2.72 | 2.30 |
| Foreign | 14.11 | 2.37 | 1.46 | 4.52 | 33.30 | 8.75 | 27.11 | 2.82 | 0.81 | 0.36 | 0.67 | 2.03 | 0.36 | 1.33 |
| Total | 25.03 | 18.29 | 8.24 | 7.97 | 6.96 | 6.22 | 5.77 | 4.65 | 3.90 | 3.16 | 3.06 | 2.93 | 2.05 | 1.73 |
Distribution of seats for individual parties
[edit] | |||||
| Club | Parties | Seats | +/– | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OĽaNO | Ordinary People and Independent Personalities | 45 | +29 | ||
| Christian Union | 5 | +5 | |||
| NOVA | 2 | 0 | |||
| Change from Below | 1 | 0 | |||
| Smer | Direction – Social Democracy | 38 | –11 | ||
| We Are Family | We Are Family | 17 | +6 | ||
| ĽSNS | Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia | 14 | 0 | ||
| Christian Democracy Life and Prosperity – Alliance for Slovakia | 3 | +3 | |||
| SaS | Freedom and Solidarity | 11 | –9 | ||
| Civic Conservative Party | 2 | +1 | |||
| For the People | For the People | 12 | +12 | ||
Other election results
[edit]- EU parliament, see 2019 European Parliament election in Slovakia
- Older elections, see Elections in Slovakia
Political parties
[edit]The Slovak political scene supports a wide spectrum of political parties including the communists (KSS) and the nationalists (SNS). New parties arise and old parties cease to exist or merge at a frequent rate. Major parties are members of the European political parties. Some parties have regional strongholds, for example SMK is supported mainly by the Hungarian minority living in southern Slovakia. Although the main political cleavage in the 1990s concerned the somewhat authoritarian policy of HZDS, the left-right conflict over economic reforms (principally between Direction - Social Democracy and Slovak Democratic and Christian Union - Democratic Party) has recently become the dominant power in Slovakia's politics.
Judicial branch
[edit]The country's highest appellate forum is the Supreme Court (Najvyšší súd), the judges of which are elected by the National Council; below that are regional, district, and military courts. In certain cases the law provides for decisions of tribunals of judges to be attended by lay judges from the citizenry. Slovakia also has the Constitutional Court of Slovakia (Ústavný súd Slovenskej Republiky), which rules on constitutional issues. The 13 members of this court are appointed by the president from a slate of candidates nominated by Parliament.
Parliament passed legislation which created a 18-member Judicial Council in 2002 consisting of judges, law professors, and other legal experts, is responsible for the nomination of judges. All judges except those of the Constitutional Court are appointed by the president from a list proposed by the Judicial Council. The council also is responsible for appointing Disciplinary Senates in cases of judicial misconduct.
Minority politics
[edit]International organization participation
[edit]Slovakia is member of ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CE, CEI, CERN, European Audiovisual Observatory, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC[clarification needed], ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS[clarification needed] (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, UNTSO, UPU, Visegrád Group, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC
Political pressure groups and leaders
[edit]- Federation of Employers' Associations of the Slovak Republic (Slovak: Asociácia zamestnávateľských zväzov a združení) (AZZZ) (President: Rastislav Machunka)
- Association of Employers of Slovakia (AZS)
- Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (Slovak: Združenie miest a obcí Slovenska) (ZMOS) (Chairman: Jozef Dvonč) - pressure group consisting of almost all Slovak towns.
- Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic (Slovak: Konfederácia odborových zväzov) (KOZ) (President: Miroslav Gazdík)
- Club 500 (Slovak: Klub 500) (Chairman: Vladimír Soták) - union of Slovak companies employing more than 500 employees.
- Metal Workers Unions (Slovak: Odborový zväz KOVO) (KOVO) (Chairman: Emil Machyna) - merged with OZ METALURG on 1. January 2010.
- Republic Union of Employers (Slovak: Republiková únia zamestnávateľov) (RÚZ) (President: Marián Jusko)
- Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovak: Slovenská akadémia vied) (SAV) (Chairman: Jaromír Pastorek) - the highest scientific institution in Slovakia.
- Slovak Merchant and Industrial Chamber (Slovak: Slovenská obchodná a priemyselná komora) (SOPK)
- Union of Slovak Pensioners (Slovak: Jednota dôchodcov Slovenska) (Chairman: Kamil Vajnorský)
- Slovenská živnostenská komora (Chairman: Vojtech Gottschall) (SŽK) - it was created by Law No. 126/1998 Z. z. from 12. December 1998.
- Slovenský živnostenský zväz (Chairman: Čižmárik Stanislav) (SŽZ)
- General Bishop's Office (Slovak: Generálny biskupský úrad) (Director: Dušan Vagaský)
See also
[edit]- List of political parties in Slovakia
- List of Slovak politicians
- Slovak political scandals
- Privatization in Slovakia
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Slovak law 180/2014 § 68
- ^ Democracy Index 2023: Age of Conflict (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit (Report). 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
- ^ "The V-Dem Dataset". V-Dem Institute. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
- ^ "Slovakia elections: Populist winner signs deal to form coalition government". BBC News. BBC. 10 November 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ "What are Slovaks expecting from Robert Fico's new government?". EuroNews. 25 October 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ "Slovakia's Fico will not support more military aid to Ukraine at EU summit". Reuters. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ "Zuzana Caputova becomes Slovakia's first female president". BBC News. BBC. 31 March 2019.
- ^ "Slovakia's Ordinary PM takes over amid coronavirus crisis". The Slovak Spectator. 21 March 2020.
- ^ "Slovak president appoints Heger prime minister, ending political crisis". Metro US. 1 April 2021.
- ^ Laca, Peter; Chamonikolas, Krystof (30 March 2021). "Slovakia Names Eduard Heger New PM After Matovic Resigns on Russia Vaccine Feud". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ "Anti-corruption party wins Slovakia election". BBC News. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- ^ "Slovakia election: seismic shift as public anger ousts dominant Smer-SD party". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 2020-03-01. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- ^ "Slovakia's anti-corruption opposition party wins election". euronews. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- ^ Mortkowitz, Siegfried (2020-02-29). "Anti-corruption opposition wins Slovakia election". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
- ^ Francelová, Nina Hrabovská (12 March 2020). "PS/Spolu has submitted an election complaint. What are the odds the results might change?". The Slovak Spectator. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
