ABSTRACT
Within days of the polling stations closing, a four-party centre-right coalition consisting of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, the Christian Democratic Movement, the Alliance of the New Citizen and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition had been formed. This chapter focuses on the two most important centre-right parties since 1989: the Christian Democratic Movement and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union. These parties profited from the failure of the nationalist parties and the communist-successor left. The electoral system, however, was simply a contributing factor in explaining the failure of the Party of the Democratic Left. Legacies, the dynamics of the transition and institutions all contribute to explaining the level of success achieved by the centre-right in Slovakia since 1989, but the authors argue that political crafting and strategic decisions at critical points are central to an explanation.
