On Saturday Slovaks and foreigners with permanent residency in Slovakia will choose the 13 people who will represent this country in the European Parliament. Analysts have warned that Slovakia might again record a very low turnout as it has been the case since 2004 due to multiple factors. First of all, many Slovaks do not really understand the role of the European Parliament and how it works.
“People do not know what their current MEPs do there and have the feeling that many of them are in a sort of political retirement in Brussels”, said political analyst Martin Klus. Then, this period is crowded with elections: last autumn’s regional ones with two rounds, then in March the new President was elected again in two rounds, now they have to choose MEPs, and in autumn Slovaks will be called again to cast their ballots in local elections. The fact that Slovaks living abroad cannot vote unless they come back home on Saturday is also an impediment. And last but not least, analysts have criticised the quality of the campaign in which 29 political movements are involved with almost half of them lacking some political history or even real programmes and thus being less known to the public. “Small parties want to use these elections to make themselves visible”, said political analyst Michal Horsky, adding that some of their candidates do not have enough knowledge of the European Parliament’s competencies. A low turnout might give a chance to parties who manage to mobilise their loyal supporters such as far-right extremists who have already proven it in the regional elections last autumn. According to a poll done by the MVK agency only 21.3% of eligible voters would cast their ballot on Saturday.
