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Slovakia election: Anti-migrant PM seeks third term | Slovakia election: Anti-migrant PM seeks third term |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Polls have closed in Slovakia's election, where Prime Minister Robert Fico is expected to lose his absolute majority after a campaign dominated by anti-migrant rhetoric. | |
An exit poll puts his party in the lead but suggests he will need partners to form a coalition. | |
Mr Fico has pledged he will not accept "one single Muslim" migrant to the largely Christian country. | |
Slovakia takes over the EU's rotating presidency in July. | |
Mr Fico's tough views on migration echo those of Polish, Czech and Hungarian leaders. | |
His Smer-Social Democracy party won a landslide in 2012 but according to the exit poll by private broadcaster TV Markiza, took just over 27% on Saturday. | |
The same poll predicts as many as nine parties will enter parliament, complicating Slovakia's political future. | |
How many parties have crossed the 5% threshold to enter parliament is unknowable until the real results start trickling in, the BBC's Rob Cameron reports from the capital Bratislava. | |
Those parties hovering on the edge include a far-right party called Our Slovakia, led by a former neo-Nazi skinhead and now regional governor, Marian Kotleba. | |
That result is sending shockwaves through Slovakia, our correspondent says. | |
Discontent | |
Nurses and teachers recently held strikes calling for higher wages, highlighting simmering discontent in some sectors despite strong economic growth. | Nurses and teachers recently held strikes calling for higher wages, highlighting simmering discontent in some sectors despite strong economic growth. |
Mr Fico is known for populist policies such as free train travel for students and pensioners. | Mr Fico is known for populist policies such as free train travel for students and pensioners. |
The leftist nationalist, 51, has fiercely opposed EU quotas on migrant resettlement from Greece and Italy, which would see his country take about 2,600 people. | The leftist nationalist, 51, has fiercely opposed EU quotas on migrant resettlement from Greece and Italy, which would see his country take about 2,600 people. |
Slovakia only received 260 asylum requests last year. | Slovakia only received 260 asylum requests last year. |