Slovak president to meet election-winner Fico, give mandate for government talks

Slovak President Zuzana Caputova will meet Robert Fico, whose SMER-SSD party won Saturday's election, at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday and hand him a political mandate to start negotiations to form a new government, her office said. Fico and his party won nearly 23% of the vote after campaigning to end military aid to Ukraine.

Slovak President Zuzana Caputova will meet Robert Fico, whose SMER-SSD party won Saturday's election, at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday and hand him a political mandate to start negotiations to form a new government, her office said.

Fico and his party won nearly 23% of the vote after campaigning to end military aid to Ukraine. SMER beat liberal challenger Progresivne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia, PS), which got 18% of votes.

Without a majority, Fico is expected to turn to HLAS (Voice), a more pro-European party which split off from SMER in 2020, and most likely a pro-Russian Slovak National Party (SNS), which won 5.6% of the vote, to form a coalition. The president will make a statement on the election at 2 p.m., her office said.

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