Demokrati (Democrats) is a centre and centre-right party, a member of the European People’s Party. It was founded in 2018 as Spolu and took its current name in 2023, when then Prime Minister Eduard Heger took it over. Since December 2023 it has been led by former Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď. It won no seats in 2023 (2.9%) or in the 2024 European elections (4.7%). It has no MPs of its own but works with the non-attached MP Ľubomír Galko.
It is in opposition outside parliament, and polls in September and October 2026 put it at 4.4–5.5%, around the 5% threshold. In July 2026 a referendum it had initiated, including on restoring the Special Prosecutor’s Office, was invalid with a 16.1% turnout. Its programme line ‘Hlboká orba’ (‘Deep ploughing’) proposes a 17% flat tax, scrapping the transaction tax, restoring the Special Prosecutor’s Office and the National Crime Agency, and writing EU and NATO membership into the Constitution. It has offered other opposition parties a pre-election coalition.
Demokrati has a documented position on 42 of the 42 test questions, across 12 topics: 19 in favour, 3 in between and 20 against. Take the test to find out how well you match Demokrati.
Profile reviewed on 16/10/2026.
4 questions: 3 in favour, 0 in between and 1 against.
Everyone should pay the same rate of income tax, whatever they earn.
Reasoning: In 2026 it presented its proposal for a 17% flat tax, part of its 2025 'Hlboká orba' platform; in 2023 it called for restoring the 19% flat tax.
Banks, energy companies and large retail chains should pay a special tax.
Reasoning: In 2024 it opposed the new levy on retail chains, saying it would raise food prices, and its 2023 manifesto proposes abolishing the special levy as an unsystematic element.
The deficit should be reduced by cutting state spending rather than by raising taxes.
Reasoning: In 2026 it said consolidation should come from tightening spending; in 2025 it proposed saving €900m on running the state, but also taxing gambling to raise €600m.
The standard VAT rate should be cut from 23%, even if the state collects less money.
Reasoning: Its 2025 'Hlboká orba' platform proposes cutting the basic VAT and income tax rates, and that same year the party rejected any further VAT increase.
Source: Hlboká orba (programová línia schválená Republikovou radou 2. 8. 2025).
3 questions: 1 in favour, 0 in between and 2 against.
Reasoning: In 2025 and 2026 it criticised blanket energy aid and called for targeted help, although Eduard Heger's government (he is now party vice-chair) capped electricity prices for all households in 2023.
Source: Demokrati: Zaplatíme ústupky SPP Gazpromu v plošných dotáciách? (tlačová správa), 11. 8. 2025.
The state should hold a majority stake in large energy companies.
Reasoning: In 2026 it criticised the state for failing to win a majority stake in Slovenské elektrárne and called for buying at least 17% to strengthen state control of energy; in 2023 it had opposed returning them to the state.
The state should cap supermarkets' profit margins on basic foods.
Reasoning: In 2023 it opposed state regulation of food prices, preferring more transparency in the supply chain; in 2024 it rejected a levy on retail chains.
Source: Volebný kompas 2023 (UMB a EUI), autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 7.
4 questions: 2 in favour, 1 in between and 1 against.
Only people with low pensions should receive the 13th pension.
The retirement age should keep rising with life expectancy, with no fixed cap.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto backs linking the retirement age to life expectancy, even enshrining it in the Constitution, but with slower increases.
Source: Volebný program 2023 (Plán pomoci ľuďom), s. 47 a 62.
Social and family benefits should be kept, even if taxes have to rise to pay for them.
Reasoning: In 2024 it disagreed with maintaining social programmes at the cost of higher taxes; in 2025 it opposed cutting child benefits and urged savings within the state.
Source: EU&I (euandi) 2024, autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 1.
People who are able to work should lose social benefits if they turn down a job or training.
3 questions: 2 in favour, 0 in between and 1 against.
There should be a single public health insurer instead of several competing ones.
Reasoning: In 2026 it said its aim is neither a single health insurer nor a duopoly, but a plural system in which insurers compete for patients.
Source: Demokrati: Slovensku hrozí duopol zdravotných poisťovní (tlačová správa), 12. 8. 2026.
Patients should be able to pay extra for healthcare above the standard level.
Reasoning: In 2023 it answered yes to letting patients pay extra for above-standard care, and in 2026 it proposed that insured people be able to choose their insurance plan.
Slovakia should actively recruit doctors and nurses from abroad.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto pledges to simplify hiring foreign health workers, and that year the party answered yes to actively inviting doctors and nurses from abroad.
6 questions: 3 in favour, 0 in between and 3 against.
Slovakia should resume sending state military aid to Ukraine.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto pledges to support Ukraine including with military aid; in 2024 it backed continued arms deliveries, and in 2026 it calls for a return to unequivocal support for Ukraine.
Source: Volebný program 2023 (Plán pomoci ľuďom), s. 7; Demokrati: Štyri roky ruskej agresie, 24. 2. 2026.
The EU should lift its sanctions on Russia.
Reasoning: In 2025 it rejected claims that sanctions raise energy prices, saying they force Russia to sell its oil at a discount; in 2024 it backed keeping them.
Source: Demokrati: Vládna propaganda o lacnej ruskej energii je lož (tlačová správa), 24. 11. 2025.
Slovakia should be able to keep buying Russian gas and oil after 2027.
Reasoning: In 2026 it said Slovakia has no reason to stick with Russian oil and can cut it off via the Croatian route; its 2025 platform aims to end dependence on Putin.
Ukraine should be able to join the EU once it meets all the conditions.
Reasoning: In 2025 it asked that Ukraine's path into European structures stay open; it backs enlarging the EU to countries that meet the criteria and in 2024 supported Ukraine's membership.
Source: Demokrati: Výzva premiérovi Ficovi, aby nerozbíjal jednotu EÚ (tlačová správa), 4. 3. 2025.
Russian assets frozen in the EU should be used to help Ukraine.
Reasoning: In 2023 it said Russia should pay the bill for its aggression and help rebuild Ukraine, and in 2025 it proposed using part of the payments for Russian raw materials for that.
Support for refugees from Ukraine should be cut back.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto guarantees continued support for refugees from Ukraine, and in 2026 Heger said he was proud of the Slovaks who opened their homes to them.
3 questions: 1 in favour, 0 in between and 2 against.
Reasoning: In 2024 it answered no to abolishing unanimity in foreign policy; in 2023 it was open only to preventing the country being decided on from blocking consensus.
Source: Volebná kalkulačka KohoVolit, eurovoľby 2024, odpoveď strany.
If the EU does not change fundamentally, Slovakia should hold a referendum on whether to stay in it.
Reasoning: Its manifesto says EU membership has no positive alternative for Slovakia; in 2023 it answered no to leaving the EU, and it now wants to enshrine membership in the Constitution.
The EU should be able to freeze EU funds for countries that do not respect the rule of law.
Reasoning: In 2024 it answered that the EU should keep halting funds to states that breach the rule of law, and in 2023 it said Orbán must not keep drawing EU money with impunity.
Source: Volebná kalkulačka KohoVolit, eurovoľby 2024, odpoveď strany.
3 questions: 1 in favour, 0 in between and 2 against.
Slovakia should leave NATO and become a militarily neutral country.
Reasoning: Its website says NATO guarantees Slovakia's security and there is no sensible alternative; it wants to enshrine membership in the Constitution.
Source: Demokrati, smedemokrati.sk: Naše riešenia pre Slovensko, bod 1 (stav k 15. 10. 2026).
Slovakia should increase defence spending to meet NATO's new target.
Reasoning: In 2025 it backed raising defence spending by at least 0.2% of GDP a year to a minimum of 3%, before NATO set its new 5% target.
Source: Demokrati: Stanovisko k obranným výdavkom (J. Naď), 26. 3. 2025.
Slovakia should withdraw from its defence cooperation agreement with the United States.
Reasoning: In 2026 it defended the defence cooperation agreement with the US, which its leader signed as minister, as advantageous and beneficial for Slovakia.
5 questions: 2 in favour, 0 in between and 3 against.
Slovakia should re-establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor to fight corruption.
Reasoning: Its 2025 'Hlboká orba' platform pledges to restore the Special Prosecutor's Office and the NAKA police agency, and in 2026 it initiated a referendum on this, which was invalid due to low turnout.
Source: Hlboká orba (programová línia schválená Republikovou radou 2. 8. 2025).
Non-governmental organisations funded from abroad should be subject to stricter state oversight.
Reasoning: In 2025 it urged MPs to vote against the NGO law, which it called a hammer against civil society; its 2023 manifesto rules out any change that would restrict NGOs.
Source: Demokrati: Vláda pripravila kladivo na mimovládky (tlačová správa), 15. 4. 2025.
Reasoning: Its 2025 'Hlboká orba' platform pledges to scrap Section 363 immediately, saying the prosecutor general must not be an unlimited master able to thwart any investigation.
Source: Hlboká orba (programová línia schválená Republikovou radou 2. 8. 2025).
Reasoning: It pledges to abolish STVR, which it sees as politicised, restore an independent RTVS and purge it of political appointees, without specifying who would choose its management.
A referendum should be valid even if fewer than half of eligible voters take part.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto refuses to lower the referendum turnout threshold so that relevant majorities decide; no call for a change has been found since its failed 2026 referendum.
4 questions: 0 in favour, 0 in between and 4 against.
Same-sex couples should be able to register their partnership legally.
Reasoning: In 2023 its then leader Heger said the time was not yet ripe for registered partnerships, and the party gave a neutral answer on them; nothing more recent has been found.
Abortion should be more restricted than it is now.
Reasoning: In 2023 and 2024 it said it does not want to tighten abortion law, but to improve conditions, such as adoption, so that women do not need abortions.
Source: EU&I (euandi) 2024, autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 9.
Ethical issues such as marriage or adoption should be decided only by each country, not by the EU.
Reasoning: In 2025 it urged MPs not to back the constitutional amendment asserting sovereignty over national identity and cultural-ethical matters, saying it endangers EU membership.
Possessing a small amount of cannabis for personal use should remain a criminal offence.
Reasoning: In 2023 it backed decriminalising personal marijuana use, and its manifesto proposes reviewing whether and how soft-drug users are punished.
Source: Volebný kompas 2023 (UMB a EUI), autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 12; Volebný program 2023, s. 19.
4 questions: 2 in favour, 2 in between and 0 against.
Reasoning: In 2023 it proposed a national minorities law unifying their rights, including language rights, but it has not addressed making Hungarian a co-official language.
Source: Volebný kompas 2023 (UMB a EUI), autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 39; Volebný program 2023, s. 34.
The 2025 law that makes it a crime to question the Beneš decrees should be repealed.
People who acquire another country's citizenship should be able to keep their Slovak citizenship.
Reasoning: In 2023 it answered yes to letting people who take another citizenship keep their Slovak one, and its manifesto aims to ease citizenship for Slovaks abroad.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto wants Roma to be fully integrated citizens and proposes measures against school segregation of Roma children and a stronger government commissioner.
2 questions: 1 in favour, 0 in between and 1 against.
Slovakia should stick to the EU goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
Reasoning: In 2025 it criticised the government for rejecting the EU's 2040 climate target, which stems from the 2050 climate neutrality commitment, though it urged pushing for Slovakia's own solutions.
Sales of new petrol and diesel cars should be banned from 2035.
Reasoning: In 2024 it disagreed with banning sales of new combustion-engine cars from 2035; in 2023 it had called it a correct step, provided measures are rational.
Source: EU&I (euandi) 2024, autoumiestnenie strany, výrok 17.
1 question: 1 in favour, 0 in between and 0 against.
Reasoning: Its 2023 manifesto pledges to open the labour market more to workers from non-EU countries, especially skilled ones, and the party proposes doing so by sector and region.
“Estimated position” means we have inferred it from the party's manifesto and statements as a whole, without a document that states it explicitly. If you know of one, write to us: we will correct it and cite it.
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