Slovakia: Party of anti-refugee PM wins elections

BELGRADE, Serbia

The Social Democratic Party led by Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico has won the general election but has failed to claim a majority in parliament, according to unofficial results based on 98 percent of votes counted.

The twentieth parliamentary elections in Slovakia took place on Saturday to elect a new government for the next four years.

According to the State Statistical Office's unofficial results, Fico's party won the elections with 28.2 percent of the vote, i.e. 49 of the 150-seat parliament.

However, the results showed that the party led by Fico - who has said his government would not allow Muslims to create “a unified community” in Slovakia - will not be able to form a government by itself having suffered from a significant decrease in support since the last elections held in 2012.

Fico’s party had claimed 44.4 percent of the vote and was able to form a single-party government.

Meanwhile, the Freedom and Solidarity party won 12 percent, Ordinary People had 11 percent, the Slovak National Party 8.6 percent and Our Slovakia Party 8 percent.

The main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Movement and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party failed to surpass the 5 percent threshold.

Slovakia declared its independence in 1993 after the breakup of Czechoslovakia and is a member of NATO and the EU since 2004.

It will also hold the EU presidency in the second half of 2016.