Slovakia PM wins election on anti-migrant ticket but loses majority

The leftist ruling party has won the parliamentary election in Slovakia, but will need coalition partners to form a majority government. In a shocking development, a neo-Nazi party gained parliamentary seats.With the votes from more than 98% of the almost 6,000 polling stations counted by the Statistics Office Sunday, the Smer-Social Democracy of Prime Minister Robert Fico, which campaigned on an anti-migrant ticket is a winner with 28.4% of the vote, or 49 seats in the 150-seat Parliament.

As the party that won the election, we have the obligation to try build a meaningful and stable government. It will not be easy, I am saying that very clearly.

Prime Minister Robert Fico

That represented a significant drop in support from the 2012 election when Smer took 44.4% and was able to govern alone. Eight parties have won seats, including the neo-Nazi People’s Party, Our Slovakia, which got 8.1 percent. Fico, who had hoped to rule with one smaller coalition partner, said building a new coalition in a highly fragmented parliament would take time and be tough, given the “very complicated” election results.

Slovakia