'Slovakia' - tagged features

Robert Fico, and his SMER party won around twenty nine per cent of the votes in last week-end's elections, and fifty in the 150-member parliament. Fico has been struggling to find common ground with the other parties to form a government. 

Last week-ends' Elections in the Czech Republic ended in deadlock: the right-wing Civic Democrats came first, but they are finding it very hard to form a coalition, with the two left-wing parties winning exactly half the seats in the lower house. Meanwhile, neighboring Slovakia is gearing up for early elections in a weeks' time. Czechs and Slovaks spent 80 years together, as part of the same state, and Czech politics are still keenly observed in Slovakia. So what lessons will be drawn in Bratislava from the stalemate in Prague? Radio Prague speaks to Milan Nic, the Slovakia based NGO, the Pontis Foundation. 

Pro-enlargement politicians believe that successive EU hopefuls should not be left in the waiting room for too long. Otherwise they might leave the road of democratic development and even embrace some form of an authoritarian regime. Slovakia, whose EU train almost got derailed under former pro-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, knows the risks involved. Radio Slovakia International reports.