JOIN USSlovakia’s leftist leader Robert Fico pledged on Sunday to defend the euro after his party won a solid majority in parliamentary elections dominated by voter anger over corruption.
Fico, whose Smer-SD party picked up 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, will be the first leader to have an independent majority since Slovakia gained independence in 1993.
He said his plans to tax the rich and boost social welfare would not be at odds with the eurozone’s drive to end the debt crisis.
“The programme will be pro-European,” said Fico, who led Slovakia into the eurozone during his first stint as prime minister from 2006-2010.
“We want the eurozone preserved and the euro as a strong European currency.”
His party won 44.4 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the outgoing SDKU-DS that saw its support dwindle to just over 6 per cent.