Two most successful candidates from last week’s first round of the Presidential election are now running in the second round of the election - current Prime Minister Robert Fico and businessman and philanthropist Andrej Kiska. The campaign for the second round started as soon as the results of the first round were announced.
Analysts claim the campaign has so far been lacking in content and is becoming more ‘dirty’. Scientology became a topic of the campaign, as PM Fico called his opponent a scientologist, supporting it with proof that Kiska has a book published by a publishing house owned by a man who is a scientologist. Kiska rejected these allegations turning against Fico the fact that it was his government that approved subsidies for a company which is lead by a man who openly admits he is a scientologist. Prime Minister Robert Fico called his opponent a usurer and for that Andrej Kiska filed a criminal complaint against him. Other politicians entered the campaign supporting one of the two candidates. President Ivan Gasparovic and ex-heads of state Rudolf Schuster and Michal Kovac believe that Slovakia needs in this period an experienced and internationally accepted politician at its helm. According to analyst Juraj Marusiak, this statement may be viewed as indirect support for Robert Fico. The Czech President Milos Zeman also stated that he hopes Robert Fico will be elected President. Most right-wing parties on the Slovak scene gave their support to Andrej Kiska and independent MP Radoslav Prochazka, who in the first round of the presidential election ended up in third place – with a little over 21 percent of the vote, will also vote for Kiska. The presidential election run-off is scheduled for March 29.
