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| - Slovakia's president on Wednesday formally tasked Igor Matovic with forming a coalition government after his centre-right OLaNO party swept to power in a weekend election on promises of combatting corruption. OLaNO ousted the populist-left Smer-Social Democracy from power by galvanising voter outrage over the 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and the high-level graft his death exposed in the eurozone state. "I have entrusted the chairman of the OLaNO party, Igor Matovic with the formation of a government," liberal President Zuzana Caputova told journalists in Bratislava. Matovic said he wanted to forge a four-party coalition commanding 95 seats in the 150-seat parliament, a majority that would allow it to amend the constitution, "as soon as possible". His success depends on whether Andrej Kiska, Slovakia's ex-president and leader of the liberal For the People party, will drop his reservations about working with Boris Kollar's right-wing party. A soft eurosceptic with anti-migrant views, Kollar has met with European far-right leaders including Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's League party and Marine Le Pen from France's National Front. "It is parliamentary mathematics," Matovic told reporters of his wish to include Kollar in the coalition, adding that "more people voted for the movement of Boris Kollar than for the party of Andrej Kiska." The proposed coalition would consist of Matovic's Ordinary People and Independent Personalities or OLaNO party, which took 53 seats, Kollar's party with 17 seats, as well as the liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and Kiska's For the People with 13 and 12 seats respectively. Without Kollar, a three-party coalition would command a narrow 77-seat majority. Matovic also said he wanted to create a foundation for investigative journalism named in honour of Jan Kuciak. Under the constitution, there is no deadline for forming a new government. But the president is required to call the first session of parliament within 30 days after the official election results are published. juh-mas/pma
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