Leftist bloc ahead in Slovak elections

A leftist party that tapped widespread public discontent over eight years of austere economic reforms won Saturday's parliamentary elections, an exit poll indicated.

A leftist party that tapped widespread public discontent over eight years of austere economic reforms won Saturday's parliamentary elections, an exit poll indicated, throwing into doubt Slovakia's quest to adopt the euro currency in 2009.

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The apparent 27.2 per cent margin held by Robert Fico's opposition Smer-Socialist Democratic Party was not decisive enough to give it a parliamentary majority. But it was a stinging rebuke to the center-right government of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, whose belt-tightening brought the ex-communist nation into the European Union, yet slashed health care and social benefits to millions.