Abstract Žúborová

Slovak Regional Elections and their Key Losers

Viera Žúborvá

Abstract: Slovak regional election brought a defeat for dominant Smer-SD. The defeat was not only symbolic. Voters symbolically rejected current political direction of Slovak republic but the voters rejected the presence of fascists on the regional level. In the media and analyst brought various reasons of the defeat of dominant Smer-SD, and some of them were calling this election as the start of the political end for social democrats. The main aim of this comment is to off er readers diff erent view on regional election in Slovakia. The article will be focus on more and more visible changes in electoral campaigning and changes in Slovak political climate, toward the end of one dominant party era.

Keywords: Regional election, campaigning, Smer-SD, party system, voter behaviour