BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovakia’s centrist Za Ludi party will enter coalition talks with the election winner and two other center-right parties, Za Ludi chief and ex-president Andrej Kiska said on Thursday, opening the way to a broad yet possibly shaky government.
Kiska’s party, whose name means For the People, could help OLANO (Ordinary people) leader Igor Matovic form a coalition with 95 of 150 seats in the parliament, strong enough to carry out constitutional changes.
Besides Za Ludi, OLANO’s prospective partners are Sme Rodina (We are Family), a socially conservative party that placed third, and the liberal SaS (Freedom and Solidarity) party.
Za Ludi is the weakest of the four with 5.8% of the votes received in the Feb. 29 election.
Analysts say that the coalition could be fragile because of possible disagreements over economic policies like taxation.
In a fragmented vote on Sunday, OLANO – a politically amorphous, pro-European Union and pro-NATO movement – won 25%, beating center-left Smer, which had dominated Slovakian politics for over a decade into second place with 18.3%.
(Reporting by Tomas Mrva; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
