Parliamentary elections were held in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

on 17 June 2006. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1747

Direction – Social Democracy Direction may refer to: *Relative direction, for instance left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down ** Anatomical terms of location for those used in anatomy ** List of ship directions *Cardinal direction Mathematics and science *Directio ...

emerged as the largest party in the National Council, winning 50 of the 150 seats. Its leader

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) ...

was appointed

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

on 4 July 2006, leading a three-party

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

coalition.

Background

Originally the election was planned for 16 September 2006. However, on 8 February the government proposed calling an early election after the

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Slovakia, political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP ...

left the coalition government. This proposal was passed by the Parliament on 9 February and signed by the President on 13 February. For the first time Slovak citizens living abroad could vote, using absentee ballots. A total of 21 parties contested the elections.Nohlen & Stöver, pp1753-1754

Results

Aftermath

On 28 June Fico announced that the government coalition would consist of his Smer-SD party, together with the

Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party ( sk, Slovenská národná strana, SNS) is a nationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and the European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won ...

and

People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Alten ...

. The

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...

(PES) criticized this decision because of nationalist statements of the leader of the Slovak National Party and subsequently suspended Smer-SD's membership.

References

External links

Official resultsSlovak Election Data ProjectBBC coverage of election results
{{Slovak elections

Parliamentary elections in Slovakia

Parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

June 2006 events in Europe