Peter Pellegrini from Slovakia anticipated to win presidential election

Peter Pellegrini, a candidate for the government, was likely to win the presidential election in Slovakia according to results and predictions on Saturday.

If Pellegrini wins, it would help Prime Minister Robert Fico because he wants to make the country more friendly with Russia and change the laws for crime and the media. Some people are worried this could make the country less fair.

Pellegrini, supported by the nationalist-left ruling group, had 56. 7 percent of the votes, while pro-Western opposition candidate Ivan Korcok had 43. 3 percent, according to results from 80. 1 percent of voting districts.

Korcok might get more votes in big city areas that announce their results last, but two Slovak media outlets predicted that he probably won’t be able to catch up.

The president of Slovakia doesn’t have a lot of power to make decisions, but they can say no to laws or ask a special court to look at them. They choose judges for the constitutional court, who could be important in political fights over Fico’s changes to make punishments for corruption less harsh.

Pellegrini, who is 48 years old, has said that Korcok wants to start a war because he supports giving weapons to Ukraine and may send Slovak soldiers to fight in the war but Korcok says this is not true.

Pellegrini, who is seen as less extreme than Fico, said that if he is elected, he will not make quick changes to foreign policy.

“I promise that we will keep being a strong part of the EU and NATO in the future,” he said after voting in Rovinka on the edge of the capital.

Korcok, a 60-year-old independent, was chosen to represent Slovakia in the EU and later in the US and later became responsible for foreign affairs in center-right governments from 2021 to 2022.

At that time, Slovakia was a strong supporter of Ukraine and gave it air defense and fighter jets. Fico’s government stopped giving out official supplies once they took over.

Pellegrini is now the leader of parliament. He used to be a close friend of Fico, who chose him to be the leader after Fico had to quit because people were angry about corruption after a journalist was killed in 2018.

He left Fico and started his own party called Hlas (Voice), which is more moderate and liberal than Fico’s party. He then formed a government with Fico and the nationalist SNS last October.