Slovakia election: pro-EU diplomat beats ally of populist PM to set up runoff for presidency

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : Voters in the past have rejected giving ruling parties both the government and presidential offices, including Caputova's win in 2019 when anti-corruption sentiment hurt Fico's party, which was in government then.
48% : Fico has abruptly shifted parts of Slovakia's foreign policy, ending state military supplies to Ukraine - while still allowing commercial supply deals - and opening dialogue with Moscow even as the EU isolates the Russian regime.
47% : Presidents do not wield many executive powers but have a role in government and judicial appointments, can veto laws and shape public debate as the liberal Caputova often did.
47% : Pellegrini has said Slovakia will remain anchored in the EU and Nato but, like Fico, says the conflict in Ukraine does not have a military solution and supports peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow - a stance Korcok and other critics say is capitulation when parts of Ukraine are occupied.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.