Opposition leader criticizes parties for planning separate election campaigns

Michal Šimečka, leader of the liberal Progressive Slovakia party, criticized two opposition parties for planning to run independently in upcoming elections rather than forming a coalition. Šimečka called it "irresponsible" that the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) intend to campaign separately. Recent polling shows SaS with 7.3 percent support while KDH hovers near the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament with 5.3 percent. Slovakia's fragmented opposition has struggled to present a unified challenge to the ruling coalition led by Robert Fico's Smer-SD party, and calls for opposition cooperation have intensified as parties risk splitting the anti-government vote.