Slovaks, angered by a corruption scandal and weary of government austerity measures, threw their support in weekend parliamentary elections behind a left-leaning politician who has pledged to raise taxes on companies and the wealthy.
Robert Fico's Smer-Social Democracy party won a clear legislative majority, capturing 83 of the 150 seats in the national assembly—the first time since independence in 1993 that a single party has received enough votes to govern on its own, without coalition partners.
The victory for the Slovak left is a sign of mounting frustration among Europeans who have endured years of budget cuts and have yet to see sustained economic benefits. It also shows the pressure on politicians caught between their constituents' desires and the European Union's fiscal rules.
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At-times violent anti-austerity demonstrations forced the resignation of Romania's center-right prime minister this year. And France's Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande is leading in the polls while promising to rethink Europe's approach to austerity.
"We succeeded with what we offered as an alternative," said Mr. Fico, who struck a chord with the electorate by arguing that the previous administration had been too hard on the poor and not focused enough on job creation in a country where unemployment is around 13%.
The leader of the alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, said Sunday that he hoped Mr. Fico's win marked "the beginning of a new, more social Europe."
Smer-Social Democracy was also helped by corruption allegations that hurt right-leaning parties at the polls. In December, purported transcripts of wiretaps were posted anonymously online, related to bribes allegedly paid by a private-equity firm to people across the political spectrum. Those named have denied wrongdoing. The Interior Ministry is investigating.
On Sunday, Mr. Fico pledged to adhere to Slovakia's European Union-mandated deficit target of below 3% of gross domestic product for next year, in part by raising taxes on personal incomes of wealthier Slovaks and raising the corporate tax rate to 22% on the country's most profitable companies.
"We realize how important it is to have healthy public finances," Mr. Fico said Sunday. He also vowed to support the EU's efforts to protect the euro, which Slovakia adopted in 2009, and recover from the sovereign debt crisis that has plagued the Continent.
"Social issues were a big factor, especially for left-leaning voters," said Grigorij Meseznikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs, a Slovak think-tank. "Many people have fears that they don't have enough protection" from the impacts of Europe's economic troubles.
A split over whether Slovakia, the euro zone's second-poorest member after Estonia, should participate in a bailout of more affluent Greece led to the collapse in October of Slovakia's previous government, a coalition of four right-leaning parties led by Iveta Radicova.
When Ms. Radicova couldn't muster the votes necessary to ratify an expansion of a euro-zone rescue fund, effectively stalling EU stability efforts, Mr. Fico and his Smer-Social Democracy agreed to support the measure in exchange for early elections.
Mr. Fico, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010, has opposed further privatization of state assets and says he is against raising the retirement age for women. Some of his policy positions echo those of the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban next door.
Mr. Orban's center-right administration has sought to meet EU-imposed deficit targets while minimizing the pain on the country's middle class in part by levying windfall taxes on banks and other big businesses and by diverting privately managed pension money back to state coffers.
—Leos Rousek contributed to this article.
Write to Gordon Fairclough at gordon.fairclough@wsj.com
Smer-Social Democracy party, government austerity measures, European Union, Slovakia, Europe, Europe, Smer-Social Democracy, parliamentary elections, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fico, Hannes Swoboda
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