ROB CAMERON

The murder of reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová convulsed Slovak society. The wave of public anger and disgust led to the fall of Prime Minister Robert Fico and ultimately the election of liberal Zuzana Čaputová as president. There was also hope (short-lived) that Slovakia could untie the Gordian knot between high-level politics and endemic corruption.

Thousands have attended protest rallies across Slovakia in memory of murdered journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, shot in a targeted killing a year ago. Kuciak had been investigating alleged corruption linked to Italian organised crime – a story which would, after his death, bring down the government. It remains unclear who ordered the killings.

Slovakia votes on Saturday in its first general election since an investigative journalist and his fiancée were murdered in 2018. The shooting of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová shocked the nation and toppled PM Robert Fico, but his Smer-SD party remains in office. Polls are tight, and support has swelled for an ultra-nationalist party.

Slovaks are voting in early elections following the collapse of the former centre-right government. Leading most polls is the populist SMER party of Robert Fico, who has pledged an immediate end to Slovak military support for Ukraine. But Fico’s former party colleague turned rival, Peter Pellegrini, is also likely to play a decisive role in forming the new government.