In brief
Hungarian parties get no seats in Slovakia’s parliament election
Main Magyar alliance below 5% threshold, despite being most voted in three districts
However, the Hungarian party achieved higher percentages in the regions where the Magyar population is concentrated: 12.7% in Trnava (third place), and 13.9% in Nitra (fourth place). It should be noted that none of the eight regions into which Slovakia is divided has a Hungarian majority. For this it is necessary to come down to the second administrative level, the districts: in three of them (Dunaszerdahely, Komárom, and Rimaszombat), Alliance was the most voted party.
Alliance ran on a programme demanding more linguistic and cultural rights for the Hungarian minority, including official status for the Hungarian language in Slovakia’s southern regions.
Other Hungarian parties, such as Most-Híd or the Hungarian Forum, have obtained much lower results, below 1%. The Hungarian electoral camp in Slovakia has been internally divided for years.
The winner of the elections was Smer, the party of former prime minister Robert Fico, which holds centre-left views on economic issues and right-wing stances on social issues. Fico has expressed views on several occasions, and has further claimed that the Slovak republic was not established “for minorities,” but “for the Slovak nation.”