SLOVAKIA'S former prime minister, Robert Fico, was last night expected to sweep to victory in the country's election.
Polls suggested the 47-year-old lawyer would win 40% of the vote after pledging to tax the rich and protect the working-class, knocking reformist rival Mikulas Dzurinda's centre-right party SDKU out of power.
A government led by Fico's left-wing pro-European Smer party would assuage Slovakia's eurozone partners, who were upset by the outgoing coalition's refusal to contribute to the first bailout of Greece.
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