Mazurek vs Majerský: who will lead Slovakia’s Prešov region?

On Saturday, 24 October, Slovakia holds municipal and regional elections, and in the Prešov region in the east of the country the main intrigue is the race for regional governor. The incumbent, Milan Majerský of the conservative KDH, who is backed by the liberal Progresívne Slovensko, is up against far-right MEP Milan Mazurek of the Republika party. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

How Saturday’s elections work

Slovaks are choosing mayors and the heads of all eight regions for four years, along with city, municipal and regional councillors. In Bratislava and Košice they also elect the leadership of city districts. Mayors and governors are elected directly in a single round: whoever gets the most votes wins, and no absolute majority is required. That makes it important whether the votes of like-minded voters get split among several candidates.

With less than a year to go before the parliamentary elections in autumn 2027, the current vote is being seen as a test of voter sentiment, although its results will be hard to interpret.

An alliance of liberals and conservatives

In Prešov, Progresívne Slovensko (PS) candidates run into aggression on the streets. A pensioner approached a PS stand and began accusing the young candidates of wanting to send children to war. One of them, 27-year-old Michal Mihňák, tried to respond, but the woman would not let him finish. His colleague Ondrej Šarník says this happens about once a day. According to the candidates, it sometimes goes as far as threats to wreck the stand or shoot them, which is why they approach voters only in pairs.

PS did not field its own candidate for governor of the Prešov region and backed Majerský instead. The party admits that its candidate would have had no chance and would only have split the vote. “This is not a lifelong marriage, it’s just a regional chairman for the next four years,” Mihňák and Šarník explain. Dominika, 37, a mother of two from Prešov’s Old Town, will vote for Majerský: “Right now there is no better choice, only a far worse one.”

Majerský says he has no agreement with PS: they offered their support themselves. He calls the differences between the parties secondary: regional elections are about roads, secondary schools and social care homes. “We don’t deal with ideologies here, we deal with people’s ordinary lives,” he stresses.

For the progressives, this means overcoming serious differences in values. In 2023 the KDH leader called LGBT+ a “contagion”, and later apologised, explaining that he meant an “ideology” rather than specific people. Moreover, his party last year helped Robert Fico’s coalition amend the constitution, which now recognises only two sexes. The support may not be reciprocated: asked whether KDH would back the progressives against Mazurek in the reverse situation, Majerský said he could not say in advance and called PS a “Bratislava party”. One KDH voter said she would not support the PS candidate.

Who is Milan Mazurek

The 32-year-old MEP and deputy chairman of the far-right Republika grew up politically in Marian Kotleba’s People’s Party – Our Slovakia. After leaving it in 2021 he began to present himself as a more acceptable politician, but he still attacks minorities and his opponents. Slovak media have long written about him as a fascist and an extremist.

• In 2015 he became notorious for vulgar shouting at a Muslim family near Bratislava’s main railway station during an anti-immigrant rally, at which cobblestones were also thrown at the family. In 2021 he apologised, calling it a “youthful mistake”.
• In 2015 he wrote on Facebook that all that is known about the Third Reich is “lies and fairy tales about six million and soap made of Jews”. The police found no crime in the post, and the prosecutor’s office upheld that decision.

In 2019 Slovakia’s Supreme Court definitively convicted Mazurek for racist remarks about the Roma, which also cost him his parliamentary seat. He continues his rhetoric of hatred now as an MEP.

Chances and balance of power

Mazurek already faced Majerský four years ago: the governor then won 42%, while the Republika candidate came third with less than 11%. This year, according to an October poll, Mazurek expects 30% or more: his voters are harder to capture in polls. Republika, which is not yet in parliament, holds third place in nationwide ratings with more than 11%, and it is traditionally stronger in the east.

Mazurek also has fewer rivals now. MEP Judita Laššáková of Smer withdrew her candidacy in early October by agreement with the party leadership; Fico explained this as a wish to “make the election more realistic”. Later Monika Leškovová of the Slovak National Party also dropped out, having already declared her support for Mazurek. Fico has not officially urged people to vote for Mazurek, but in the spring he hinted to supporters that, choosing between him and Majerský, they would know exactly whom to vote for. “And it definitely won’t be Majerský,” he said on Slovak Radio. Fico does not rule out cooperation with Republika at the national level either, and calls PS “a hundred times more dangerous” for the country.

On social media Mazurek himself calls Majerský a “Judas, a traitor and a liar”, and passes off PS’s support as a nomination by the progressives. He has relied on billboards and social media in his campaign, and journalists found no public campaign events in the region. He promises to improve roads, schools and healthcare and to create three regional business forums.

What voters think

Some voters no longer see Mazurek’s past as an obstacle. Maria Hrčková, a pensioner and Smer supporter in Svidník, will still vote for Majerský despite PS’s backing. Anna Klebanová, a former teacher of Russian and history, is leaning towards Mazurek: “He has a different opinion, I accept that,” she says, agreeing above all with his views on the Roma. Marketing political scientist Martin Mudrik of the University of Prešov explains: “They have put on suits, softened their rhetoric and no longer deny the Holocaust.” But “they will never move to the centre, because they have to hold on to their own base,” he adds.

In Stará Ľubovňa, a Roma man named Fero, on hearing of Mazurek’s possible victory, says: “That’s a second Hitler.” If Mazurek wins, Fero promises to gather his family and leave for England immediately. Voter Ivana, by contrast, is drawn to Mazurek’s attitude towards the Roma: “I don’t know, but at least there’s hope.”

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz