Former PM Pellegrini To Run For President, Election On 23 Mar

Former Prime Minister and incumbent Speaker of the National Council Peter Pellegrini will run for the Slovakian presidency as the candidate of the governing coalition. The first round of the election will take place 23 March, with a second-round run off on 6 April should no candidate receive a majority in the first round. With incumbent President Zuzana Caputova stepping down the election is likely to become a straight race between Pellegrini, backed by his own centre-left Hlas-SD and the left-wing populist Smer-SD of PM Robert Fico, and candidates backed by liberal opposition parties.

• Opinion polling shows Pellegrini leading, with former Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok, backed by the main opposition Progressive Slovakia, in second place. Russophile former Supreme Court Chief Justice Štefan Harabin sits in third place.
• The Slovakian presidency is a largely ceremonial position. The president is able to veto legislation from the National Council, but this can be overridden by a majority vote in parliament, making it a relatively weak rebuke.
• Nevertheless, should Pellegrini win it would see the president's office transition from one that has been critical of the populist turn of Fico's gov't to one occupied by an ally of his gov't.