Six of an estimated 50 Roma candidates who ran in Slovakia’s September 2023 parliamentary elections were elected, bringing to office the greatest number of Roma members of parliament (MPs) in the country's history. Roma, a historically disenfranchised minority, now comprise four percent of the 150-member body. These elections tell the story of two different approaches to boosting minority political representation: direct voter engagement and mainstreaming candidates through their positions on the candidate list. After years of moderate political and societal success, the outcomes may provide insights into a path forward for Roma candidates in other Central and Eastern European countries with a significant Roma minority.

The Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority but often face systemic discrimination and difficult socioeconomic conditions, while remaining politically underrepresented within local and national decision-making. Roma political parties in Slovakia are notoriously fragmented, and paths to representation have traditionally been fraught with external accusations of foul play, discriminatory practices, and systemic marginalization. 

When the National Democratic Institute (NDI) began work to advance Roma political participation in Slovakia in 2005, it found no clear support for Roma parties at the national level; at the same time, Roma respondents to an NDI survey felt that no one party (including Roma parties) represented Roma interests. This first-of-its-kind research on political participation in Roma communities filled a critical information gap on the levels of political awareness, confidence in public institutions, electoral behavior, and nature of political participation among Roma people in Slovakia. These insights also provided a roadmap for supporting their efforts: if Roma gain political clout by developing their advocacy skills and advancing their leadership as elected officials and watchdogs while engaging parliaments, mainstream parties, and civil society organizations on Roma-related issues, government responsiveness to these issues would follow. Nearly 20 years later, this long-term approach has yielded positive results for Roma political representation in Slovakia. 

For the first time ever, Slovakia’s elected Roma MPs represent two different parties: Ordinary People, Independent Personalities (OLaNO) with four representatives, and Progressive Slovakia with two. Another eight politically relevant parties had at least one Roma candidate on their respective candidate lists. Many of the other Roma candidates represented smaller or lesser-known parties, including some that identify as ethnic Roma parties. In a country where women represent just 21 percent of the parliament’s membership and face gender-based hate and attacks more frequently than men, half of the elected Roma are women.

For Anezka Škopova, a newly elected OLaNO MP who grew up in a settlement, her work goes beyond politics: “I know how difficult it is to assert yourself in a society that looks at you through prejudices and stereotypes. There are many examples that prove that these stereotypes and prejudices are not based on truth, and I myself am trying to be such an example.”

Crucially, OLaNO’s Roma candidates secured at least 53,000 votes for the party - almost 20 percent of its total. Without these votes, OLaNO would not have reached the 7 percent threshold required of coalitions to enter parliament. The preferential votes secured by OLaNO Roma candidates, including Viliam Tanko, Lukas Buzo, Anezka Škopova, and incumbent MP Peter Pollak Jr., are owed to their intensive voter engagement campaigns in the field and on social media during the summer. Their efforts paid off as all four were elected, despite only Pollak Jr. having previous political and campaign experience. Pollak Jr. received the third-most votes among OLaNO MPs and 27th among the 150 elected MPs. Tanko and Buzo secured more than 20,000 preferential votes and Skopova more than 12,000. OLaNO’s four Roma MPs form one-fourth of the party’s parliamentary contingent (16 elected MPs total). 

Detailed results show that in many communities with a Roma majority, OLaNO won decisive victories, capturing more than 70 percent and, in some cases, more than 90 percent of votes. The OLaNO candidates focused directly on appealing to Roma voters - not just through their physical presence in communities, but also with their campaign messages. They emphasized increases in social and family benefits implemented during OLaNO’s previous administration, while highlighting police raids in Roma settlements under SMER (Direction, Slovakia’s leftist, populist ruling party). MP Anežka Škopová built her campaign on issues that ranged from employment to housing to education, as well as the role of young women in society. When asked what lessons future candidates could draw from her successful contact-based campaign, she shared that “campaigning really requires you to put your whole self into it,” noting that she and her colleagues would visit two or more localities every day during the campaign period.

Viliam Tanko, a professional boxer-turned-MP elected on OLaNO’s list, also exemplifies the value of this approach. When asked to reflect on his campaign success, he responded, “There is no universal key to success. Be in touch with voters…In our constituencies, it is crucial to value the people. We approached them as people first.” Škopová noted that she was able to build trust with voters through “personal contact, showing interest in different areas of life, natural communication, and authenticity.” 

Progressive Slovakia, the other party with elected Roma MPs, placed Roma candidates in strong positions on their party list. Irena Bihariova, the former head of the party, ran from 10th place and Ingrid Kosova from 12th. Both candidates also received a sizable number of preferential votes. This strategy of “mainstreaming” Roma candidates on the list of a well-known political party is another approach to increasing representation for the minority group.

For Slovakia’s Roma MPs, winning their elections is just the beginning. Despite a lack of evidence, all of OLaNO’s Roma candidates have been publicly accused of bribing voters and taking advantage of functionally illiterate Roma, who live in segregated settlements. These accusations, originating from across the political spectrum, are factually problematic and often racially motivated. In reality, all four candidates succeeded through hard work during the campaign in fields where the other candidates were not willing to conduct the same levels of direct voter outreach and engagement. Although Slovakia’s Roma regularly experience such racially charged discrimination, the newly elected MPs now have an opportunity to respond to critical challenges facing their constituents while serving as role models for future generations.

Authors: Ondrej Poduska, Program Manager, NDI Czech Republic, Vladimir Horvath, Program Officer, NDI Slovakia, and Nicole Wright Patrick, Program Manager, Central & Eastern Europe

NDI’s engagement with this program is implemented with the support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) program.

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