Slovak PM suffers election defeat after assassination bid

(ANSA-AFP) - BRATISLAVA, JUN 10 - Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico suffered a surprise defeat in EU elections to the opposition liberals on Sunday, weeks after he was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt, his party said. Fico's left-wing nationalist Smer-SD party expressed "congratulations to the winner of the election, Progressive Slovakia" and its new European parliament members, on its Facebook page. Fico, 59, is an opponent of military aid to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. The latest opinion polls had indicated that he was favourite to top the vote, in what was seen as a sign that the assassination bid had driven up support for his party.
    Progressive Slovakia (PS) won 27.81 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, meaning six seats in the European Parliament, according to results widely reported in Slovak media ahead of their official publication. Smer-SD won 24.76 percent, yielding it five seats in the 720-member EU assembly. Far-right party Republika came third with 12.53 percent and two seats, the results showed.
    According to estimates published on Sunday afternoon by the website Seznam.cz, former Prime Minister Andrej Babis' populist Ano (Disgruntled Citizen Action) movement won the Czech Republic's European Parliament elections, followed by the Spolu (Together) coalition formed by three government parties, Civic Democrats (ODS), Top 09, and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
    (ANSA-AFP).