Will Pellegrini win? The mafia will return. Korchok? It will be America. We were in the stronghold of Harabin’s voters, who will decide

“Who will I vote for? The lesser evil, Korčoka,” says pensioner Ján (62), seemingly surprisingly.

We are in Ľubica near Kežmark, where Štefan Harabin comes from and where he has numerous relatives. In the first round of the Slovak presidential elections the weekend before last, Ivan Korčok won here with 37.6 percent of the vote, the second Harabin had 32.6 percent of 516 votes.

I’m sitting with two Johns in a pub oddly named Hashtag (also with a hashtag symbol on the wall). They were craftsmen before they retired. They differ in that one drinks pear wine, the other plum wine.

There is a church right next to the pub in the middle of the village.

“Are we going to top it up here, or what, gentlemen?” asks the young waitress in Czech. I learn from both Jáns that the waitress is local and only speaks Czech when she is in a good mood.

How do those with whom Harabin played table tennis and football vote

Elder Ján (64) used to play ping pong with Harabin. Harabin was said to be an excellent defender, which does not fit well with the fact that he acts as an attacker in politics.

“He’s got a head, he’s thinking. We are friends, even with his family. But I’m bothered by his demeanor. I voted for Kubiš in the first round. A big guy and he has a demeanor, that’s how a president should be,” says Ján od hruškovice. He claims that his three children will also vote for the “lesser evil” in the second round – namely Korčok.

The younger Ján voted for Igor Matovič in the first round (ex-prime minister, formerly OLaNO, now the Slovakian party, note to Deník N), apparently out of habit. “I knew he wasn’t going to win. I have such a conviction that if I don’t go to vote, I can’t vote. So I did what I did. In the second round I will vote for Korčok, Fico can’t have everything. If Pellegrini wasn’t with him, many of us here would vote for him,” he evaluates the situation.

We will stay in Ľubica. Father and sons also live in this region