The political landscape before the election
16 political parties took part in this year's election for the European Parliament: the Agrarian Party, the Democratic Party, the Communist Party of Slovakia, the Conservative Democrats of Slovakia in coalition with the Civic Conservative Party, the Christian Democratic Movement, the League of Civic and Liberal Parties, the People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, the Mission 21, the Freedom and Solidarity, the Free Forum, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party, the Slovak National Party, the Direction – Social Democracy, the Party of the Democratic Left, the Party of the Hungarian Coalition and the Green Party. The Slovak Romany Initiative withdrew six days before the election.
In the years 2004-2009, the Slovak Republic had 14 seats in the European Parliament, of which five went to women (35,71%): Irena Belhorská (Movement for Democratic Slovakia – L'S-HZDS), unaffiliated, because her party was not accepted by any of the fractions in the European Parliament; Edit Bauer (Hungarian Coalition – SMK), who in the European Parliament is a member of the European People's Party Group (Christian Democrats), Monika Beňová (Direction – Social Democracy – Smer – SD), who in the EP is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Zita Pleštinská (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party – SDKÚ – DS), who in the EP was a member of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats), and Anna Záborská (Christian Democratic Movement – KDH) of the European People's Party Group (Christian Democrats), who in the previous term used to head the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee. In the new term, Slovakia will have 13 seats.
The total of 184 people stood for the European election – 53 of them (28,8%) were women. This was no great change in comparison to the previous election in 2004, when 52 (27,6%) of 188 candidates were women. At the same time, few women were placed in high, seat yielding positions. The leading positions on electoral lists went to Edit Bauer, standing for re-election as a member of the Hungarian Coalition, and Jana Budačová of the Green Party, who even before the election was considered unlikely to win a seat, because there was little chance of the Greens' crossing the 5-percent electoral threshold. Third places were occupied by Irena Belohorská of the Movement for Democratic Slovakia, Monika Flašiková of the Smer – SD and Anna Zaborská. Interestingly, another Euro-MP, Zita Pleštinská of SDKÚ – DS was placed in a remote, sixth position. Experts from women's organisations observed that in this year's election women were placed in far worse positions, with less chance of winning. The lists were not at all put together with equal opportunities in mind. There were only two exceptions. The list of the Green Party had more or less equal proportion of both sexes (7 women and 6 men). The Greens managed to invite activists of non-governmental organisations, and they placed women and men alternatingly. Another exception was the Free Forum, which had a woman in the second position. Both parties are small, extra-parliamentary organisations and had little chance of winning. This time, there was no women-only lists (in 2004, the “Active Women” movement had a list of its own).
The landscape after the election
There has been little public interest in the Euro-election in Slovakia: in 2004, the turnout amounted to 16,97% and was the lowest in the entire European Union; in 2009, it was a little higher at 19,64%. Commentators indicate that the reason might be the limited interest of Slovak citizens in the EU affairs, low political awareness of the public and the media, who do not realise that the decisions made by the European Parliament do translate into the national level. But most of all, the low turnout was brought about by people being fed up with frequent elections (in March and April 2009 there were two rounds of the presidential election, at the end of the year there will be local elections, and next year people will be choosing the national parliament).
Presumably it is due to the low prestige of the Euro-elections, that political parties offer places on electoral lists there to female politicians who are popular in the country. According to experts from women's organisations, it is a men's way to get rid of exceedingly popular female rivals. That was the case with Zita Pleštinská, who some years ago used to be a very ambitious local politician, but after five years in the European Parliament practically lost her position in the party.
As had been forecast, the election results proved similar to the prevailing distribution of power in the Slovak Parliament. Seats were won mainly by representatives of the current parliamentary parties: Smer-SD, SDKU-DS, SMK, KDH, LS-SZDS and SNS. At the same time, almost all victorious parties had their MEPs in the previous term. The seat for populist and nationalist SNS party, however, came as a surprise. It introduced its representatives into the European Parliament for the first time, thus strengthening similar forces within the EP.
The number of women among the newly elected Slovak MEPs has not changed – women won five seats (38%). They are: re-elected Monika Flašiková-Beňová, Monika Smolková and Katarina Nedved'alová of Smer-SD, who are members of the European Parliament's Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Edit Bauer of the SMK and Anna Zaborská of KDH, both re-elected and both members of the European People's Party.
During this year's election, voters were much more inclined to use preferential voting, i.e. while voting for a particular party they indicated two candidates on their list, and seats were assigned according to the number of votes granted within this procedure. A seat was won by the person, who obtained at least 10% of all votes cast for the list. The system proved to be more beneficial to female candidates, since even if they occupied more remote positions on the lists, the voters cast their preferential votes in their favour, which proves that the Slovaks want to vote for women. In 2004, only one MEP was chosen in this manner – this year, as many as 11 out of 13, and only two thanks to a position on the party list. For example, Monika Flašiková-Beňová, standing from the third position, won 107 097 votes, thus moving to the top of the list. Anna Zaborská, also in the third position, would have had little chance of winning, if it were not for preferential voting. The ex-MEP Zita Pleštinská, standing from the sixth position, thanks to the preferential votes moved to the third place and was only 200 votes short of wining the seat again.
Of the newly elected female MEPs, two declare interest in equality issues. Edit Bauer already dealt with those issues during her previous term, e.g. she proposed presenting a report on the prevailing regulations concerning equal pay. In her activity as an MEP, she uses her experience as vice-minister in the Slovak ministry of labour, social policy and family, where she was responsible for equal treatment. In her new term, she plans to focus on the issues of employment and education, as well as human and minority rights. Katarina Nedved'alová is the youngest Slovak MEP (she is 26). She plans to concentrate on women's issues, gender equality and human rights, as well as the problems of young people and environmental protection.
During the election campaign the issues of equality of women and men and counteracting discrimination were not raised by political parties, except for extra-parliamentary organisations (such as the Green Party), who had no chance of winning. In Slovakia those issues are not treated as a serious political problem, therefore no party deals with them in a more systemic manner; sometimes the equality issues were quoted in campaigns of individual candidates. The question of political participation of women was emphasised by the Slovak Women's Lobby, which was involved in the European Women's Lobby campaign “50/50”, aimed at increasing the political representation of women in the European Union. Still, in Slovakia the campaign was not visible, conducted practically only via a website, therefore it had little chance of reaching a larger number of voters.
The material is based on the reports by Zuzana Kostkovciková of Aspekt.