Politics of Slovakia

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.

Politics of Slovakia Politika Slovenska
Coat of arms of Slovakia
Polity type	Unitary parliamentary republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Slovak Republic (1992)
Formation	1 January 1993
Legislative branch
Name	National Council
Type	Unicameral
Meeting place	Parliament Building, Bratislava
Presiding officer	Peter Pellegrini, Speaker of the National Council of Slovakia
Appointer	Open list proportional representation with a 5% electoral threshold (7% for two-, three-party alliances; 10% for four-or-more party alliance) allocated under the largest remainder method with Hagenbach-Bischoff quota
Executive branch
Head of state
Title	President
Currently	Peter Pellegrini
Appointer	Direct popular vote, two-round system
Head of government
Title	Prime Minister
Currently	Robert Fico
Appointer	National Council
Cabinet
Name	Government of Slovakia
Current cabinet	Fico's Fourth Cabinet
Leader	Prime Minister
Deputy leader	Robert Kaliňák, Deputy Prime Minister Denisa Saková, Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš Taraba, Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec, Deputy Prime Minister
Appointer	National Council
Headquarters	Episcopal Summer Palace, Bratislava
Ministries	17
Judicial branch
Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic
Chief judge	Ján Šikuta
Seat	Bratislava
Constitutional Court of Slovakia
Chief judge	Ivan Fiačan
Seat	Košice

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. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Slovakia was 2023 the 18th most electoral democratic country in the world.

History

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

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. 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. 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.

Legal system

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

Main office-holders

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.

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. 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.

Legislative branch

Main office-holders

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

Suffrage

18 years of age; universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot.

Presidential election

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

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

Main article: 2020 Slovak parliamentary election

Results of the election, showing vote strength for each party by district.

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.

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. In total 820,411 votes fell below the electoral threshold, which is 28.47% of all valid votes.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	OĽaNO–NOVA–KU–ZZ	721,166	25.03	+14.00	53	+34
	Direction – Social Democracy	527,172	18.29	–9.99	38	–11
	We Are Family	237,531	8.24	+1.61	17	+6
	Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia	229,660	7.97	–0.07	17	+3
	Progressive Slovakia–Together coalition	200,780	6.97	New	0	New
	Freedom and Solidarity	179,246	6.22	–5.88	13	–8
	For the People	166,325	5.77	New	12	New
	Christian Democratic Movement	134,099	4.65	–0.29	0	0
	Hungarian Community Togetherness	112,662	3.91	–0.14	0	0
	Slovak National Party	91,171	3.16	–5.48	0	–15
	Good Choice	88,220	3.06	New	0	New
	Homeland	84,507	2.93	New	0	New
	Bridge	59,174	2.05	–4.45	0	–11
	Socialists.sk	15,925	0.55	New	0	New
	We Have Had Enough!	9,260	0.32	New	0	New
	Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party	8,191	0.28	New	0	New
	Democratic Party	4,194	0.15	+0.07	0	0
	Solidarity – Working Poor Movement	3,296	0.11	New	0	New
	Mayors and Independents	2,018	0.07	New	0	New
	Slovak Revival Movement	1,966	0.07	New	0	New
	Voice of the Right	1,887	0.07	New	0	New
	Labour of the Slovak Nation	1,261	0.04	New	0	New
	99% – Civic Voice	991	0.03	New	0	New
	Slovak League	809	0.03	New	0	New
Total		2,881,511	100.00	–	150	0
Valid votes		2,881,511	98.88
Invalid/blank votes		32,698	1.12
Total votes		2,914,209	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		4,432,419	65.75
Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

Results by region

Region	OĽaNO	Smer	SR	ĽSNS	PS–SPOLU	SaS	ZĽ	KDH	MKÖ/MKS	SNS	DV	VLASŤ	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

Distribution of seats for individual parties

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	3	+3
	SaS		Freedom and Solidarity	11	–9
			Civic Conservative Party	2	+1
	For the People		For the People	12	+12

Other election results

• EU parliament, see 2019 European Parliament election in Slovakia
• Older elections, see Elections in Slovakia

Political parties

Further information: List of political parties in Slovakia

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

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

See also: Hungarians in Slovakia, Roma in Slovakia, and Language law of Slovakia

International organization participation

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, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (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

• 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

• List of political parties in Slovakia
• List of Slovak politicians
• Slovak political scandals
• Privatization in Slovakia