Left-wing nationalist candidate Peter Pellegrini has been elected as the next president of Slovakia, beating ex-Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok in a vote on Saturday. Pellegrini is a close ally of the country's Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is a staunch opponent of sending weapons to Ukraine.
Pellegrini received 53.12% of the total vote, according to Slovakia’s Statistical Office, while Korcok received 46.87%.
The pro-West Korcok has conceded the loss. “I am genuinely disappointed, to be honest,” he said shortly after the results were announced. “But because I am an athlete at heart, I respect the results. It was a celebration of democracy.”
Pellegrini served as prime minister between 2018 and 2020 and is currently the speaker of Slovakia’s parliament. He is allied with Fico, who has reversed the previous government’s decision to send military aid to Ukraine.
Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova congratulated Pellegrini, wishing him success in office. “It is important that, from the moment of the election, the new president acts in such a way that no part of society will feel defeated,” she said.
Fico has been a vocal critic of NATO and the EU over their unconditional support for Ukraine against Russia, arguing that Slovakia should not be dragged into the conflict. He had slammed Korcok as “a warmonger who unhesitatingly supports everything the West tells him.”
He has also accused Kiev of making unrealistic demands regarding a potential peace settlement with Moscow and even suggested that Ukraine may have to relinquish its territorial claims.
Pellegrini himself has spoken out against weapons deliveries to Ukraine. In his victory speech, the president-elect promised to “do everything to ensure that Slovakia will always remain on the side of peace and not on the side of war, whether anyone likes it or not.”
He has dismissed the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine as a dangerous escalation. In an op-ed published last month in the newspaper Hospodarske noviny, he argued that it is irresponsible for Slovakian politicians to call for arms shipments to Ukraine without any regard for Bratislava’s own safety and to “label those who mention the word ‘peace’ as agents of Moscow.”