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| - Slovakia's former populist prime minister said on Wednesday he would launch his own left-wing party, with support for his once-dominant formation plummeting since the 2018 murder of a journalist probing high-level corruption. Peter Pellegrini and his Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) lost the February general election to OLaNO, a centre-right party that galvanised voter outrage over the gangland-style murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, and the graft his death exposed. Support for the Smer-SD, led by the controversial veteran politician Robert Fico, sank to a record low of around 10 percent in recent polls, which also show Pellegrini himself commanding around 20 percent support. "I am now the former Smer-SD deputy leader as I gave up this position last week," Pellegrini said Wednesday in Bratislava. "We are about to create a party focused on solving people's problems," he said, adding that "we want to be the voice of social democracy in Slovakia". Pellegrini, 44, had long been perceived as the "crown prince" of the Smer-SD, a party he joined two decades ago before becoming its deputy-leader in 2014. Pellegrini replaced Fico as prime minister in 2018 amid public outrage sparked by Kuciak's murder. Known to have had connections to Smer-SD members, businessman Marian Kocner is currently on trial, accused of ordering the hit on Kuciak as revenge for his reports highlighting the property mogul's activities. Kocner faces a possible life sentence in an closely-watched trial scheduled to end on Friday. Kuciak's murder triggered the largest street protests in Slovakia since the 1989 fall of the communist regime and paved the way for the OLaNO's February electoral victory. Forming a majority coalition with three other parties, OLaNO Prime Minister Igor Matovic took office in March as the coronavirus pandemic struck, vowing to push through anti-corruption measures in the judiciary and police. juh/mas/pvh
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