BRATISLAVA – Ruling Slovak center-right parties won enough votes in weekend elections to form a new pro-EU government, according to preliminary results announced on Sunday by the National Electoral Committee.

The results showed autocratic three-time prime minister Vladimir Meciar‘s HZDS won the biggest single block of votes, with 19.5 percent — down sharply from the 27 percent it won in 1998.

Now, as then, Meciar appears isolated and a broad rightist grouping should be able to form a majority government if they team up with the pro-business New Citizens‘ Alliance (ANO). That would give them 78 seats in the 150-seat parliament. Premier Mikulas Dzurinda‘s SDKU won 15.1 percent of the vote, while coalition partners the Christian Democrats took 8.25 percent and the ethnic Hungarian SMK 11.2 percent. The ANO, set up last year by television magnate Pavol Rusko, won eight percent.

It is the first time in post-communist Europe that a rightist government has been returned to power with a majority and bucks the trend seen in recent elections in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic which have all shifted to the left.

A new rightist coalition should boost ties with the West and keep Slovakia on track to join the NATO military alliance later this year and the European Union within two years.

The center-left SMER party, led by 38-year-old former communist Robert Fico won 13.5 percent. Fico has clashed publicly with senior government members during the campaign and had demanded the premiership in return for joining a center-right coalition.

Meciar, self-styled father of the nation — he split Slovakia from the Czech Republic in 1993 — faces another term in opposition. He was roundly criticized for trampling on human rights and flouting democracy in 1994-1998, prompting Western diplomats to warn that his return to power would leave Slovakia isolated. Meciar, looking tired and edgy, refused to comment on his party‘s showing until Monday, when party leaders will meet President Rudolf Schuster to discuss forming a new government. They will include Jozef Sevc, head of the unreformed Communist Party (KSS) which won a surprise 6.3 percent, giving it seats in parliament for the first time since communism fell. A new government faces tough decisions as it tries to prepare Slovakia for EU and NATO entry.

Harsh economic reforms must be continued, while unemployment is already the highest in the region at around 18 percent, and many live in poverty. Turnout was just over 70 percent.

Reuters