A pro-western diplomat and a politician accused of promoting Russia-friendly talking points will face off in a nailbiting presidential runoff in Slovakia on Saturday, amid fears the country is sliding away from the west.
Ivan Korčok, a former foreign minister, and Peter Pellegrini, the speaker of parliament who is backed by Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, are neck-to-neck in the polls.
Since coming back to power late last year, Fico has pursued a foreign policy more friendly towards Moscow and begun targeting independent institutions at home, sparking anger and protests.
The government’s critics say the election is key because the future office holder can act as a check on Fico and stem the tide of democratic backsliding.
“What is at stake is the future of our democracy,” said Ľubica Karvašová, a candidate in the European parliament elections who is running on the opposition Progressive Slovakia’s list. Voters, Karvašová said, “don’t want to feel ashamed of our country as they do when the current Slovak government systematically burns bridges with its allies”.
And while the Slovak president’s powers are limited, the winner can make a difference. The president can act as a “barrier for more autocratisation”, said Michal Ovádek, a lecturer at University College London. “Doesn’t mean it is not going to keep happening – but probably slower,” he added.
Korčok, who previously served as Slovakia’s ambassador in Washington and Brussels and has been campaigning on a pro-western platform, scored a surprise victory in the first round of the presidential race last month.
Pellegrini, a former prime minister who used to be a member of Fico’s Smer party and now leads the government coalition party Hlas, has cast himself as the “peace” candidate.
“Slovakia should not be merely a passive receiver of what is dictated in Washington and Brussels,” he said in a television debate on Tuesday.
Before the election, the central European investigative outlet VSquare alleged that when Pellegrini was prime minister in 2020 he asked Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for help arranging a trip to Moscow to boost his credentials among pro-Russian voters in Slovakia.
Experts say the last days of campaigning were marked by rampant disinformation. “We see that Ivan Korčok, after winning the first round, he has become the sole person a lot of disinformation and smear campaigns are targeted against,” said Katarína Klingová, a senior research fellow at theGlobsec thinktank.
From social media to leaflets, negative narratives and disinformation have been spreading, often portraying Korčok as a warmonger backed by the west.
But Smer has accused Korčok’s supporters of fuelling divisions.
“They still use this narrative that the people who are supporting the government or who support Smer or whoever else, not Korčok, are the bad guys,” said Katarina Roth Neveďalová, a member of the European parliament representing Smer. “This is very dangerous and it’s not very OK – and it’s dividing society strongly,” she said in a phone interview.
And while the two candidates appear virtually tied in the latest polls, outrage at Fico’s policies has mobilised a segment of the population in support of Korčok.
There is a sense that Pellegrini could fall behind. “There’s a big part of his electorate, which is fairly moderate,” said Ovádek. “And so anything he does to appease the far right that he’s now trying to court, might alienate them.”
Adding to the candidate’s troubles is that while he formally enjoys Fico’s support, the prime minister’s backing is not believed to be wholehearted. “You can actually see from Smer’s support for Pellegrini that it’s quite lukewarm,” said Ovádek.
Neveďalová, however, insisted that Pellegrini had the party’s full support. “We don’t have any other candidate,” she said, “we are standing behind him.”
