The party was registered as Progressive Slovakia (PS) with the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic on 27 November 2017, after the submission of 13,500 signatures.[4] The party's founding congress was held on 20 January 2018, which resulted in Ivan Štefunko being elected as the party's chairman. Štefunko views the left–right political spectrum as obsolete, instead aiming for the party to be a centrist and liberal political movement, claiming that "Slovakia is full of people who want a modern, open and European country".[5] Štefunko stepped down as the party's leader in 2019 following criticism of his past involvement in business and politics, although the official reasoning for his resignation was due to health issues.[6] Štefunko was replaced by former deputy leader Michal Truban.[7] Truban is an IT professional, an entrepreneur, and an anti-corruption activist who also favors digitalization of governance and bureaucracy.[6]
Zuzana Čaputová, co-founder and former deputy leader of Progressive Slovakia, became the first country's female president, as well as the youngest president in the history of Slovakia
PS first gained attention in 2018 when Matúš Vallo, its favored candidate, won the 2018 municipal elections in Bratislava, and subsequently became the city's mayor.[6] After the 2019 Slovak presidential election, the victory of its presidential candidate, 45-year-old lawyer Zuzana Čaputová,[8] was hailed by international media commentators as a victory of liberalism over populism.[9] According to political scientist Michael Rossi, Čaputová's popularity is related to her appeal as an outsider amidst frustration over political corruption and clientelism among the electorate. Čaputová first gained fame as a campaigner against a toxic waste dump created by real estate brokers who were connected to the ruling Smer-SD, which led to many commentators describing her as the "Slovak Erin Brockovich".[9] While campaigning for the presidency, Čaputová focused on the issues of corruption, inflation, justice, the environment, and overhaul of healthcare, and ran on the slogan "stand up to evil". She stayed silent on the issue of immigration and open borders, which most Slovaks were opposed to, and was the only major candidate not to condemn the Global Compact for Migration.[10][11]
The party's position on the political spectrum is nuanced, and has been debated. Internationally, PS has been generally described as centrist,[24][28][29] or centre-left,[30][31][32] and as being ideologically modelled on the Renaissance party in France.[23][24] Slovak politologist Darina Malová positioned the party on the left-wing of the political spectrum, labeling them a "modern left-wing" party; she distinguished them from the "old school" left-wing Slovak parties, such as Direction – Social Democracy.[33] Despite this, the party is generally associated with the centre-right in Slovakia,[34] with the majority of its voters describing themselves as right-wing,[35][36] and they have an overlapping voter base with the conservative party Slovakia (formerly Ordinary People and Independent Personalities; OĽaNO), centre-right For the People, and right-libertarian Freedom and Solidarity.[36][37]
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2023). "Slovakia". Parties and Elections in Europe.
^Daniel Matthews-Ferrero; Patrik Fritz; Robert Steenland (24 April 2019). "EU country briefing: Slovakia". EURACTIV. Recent presidential elections were seen as a crossroads: sticking with the old establishment in the form of SMER-supported EC Vice-President for Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, or a desire for change embodied in the political novice Zuzana Čaputová from the relatively new social liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party.
^ abc"Der globale Stresstest 2020". Der Spiegel. 31 December 2019. Ob ihre liberale, proeuropäische Partei 'Fortschrittliche Slowakei' an ihren Erfolg anknüpfen kann, oder doch wie in den Nachbarländern rechtspopulistische Kräfte triumphieren, wird sich bei der Parlamentswahl am 29. Februar zeigen.
^ abPeter Daubner (3 June 2019). "The Slovak Paradox". Transform Europe. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2020. The winner of the EP election, surprisingly, is a coalition of two new political parties: the liberal, progressive, pro-European Progressive Slovakia and the liberal conservative center-right TOGETHER - Civic Democracy (Spolu – Občianska demokracia).
^ abMüller, Peter; Reiermann, Christian (14 March 2018). "Macron Eyes Expanding His Movement Across Europe". Der Spiegel. And in Slovakia, a new left-leaning economic liberal party called Progressive Slovakia was founded last year based on the En Marche! model.
^"Presidential Elections in Slovakia". Transform Europe. 24 May 2019. Zuzana Čaputová, the candidate of the non-parliamentary neoliberal party 'Progressive Slovakia', has won the second round of presidential elections with 58% of votes.
^Rohac, Dalibor (11 March 2019). "A Rebuke for Populism?". The American Interest. New political parties emerged, one on the center-Left (Progressive Slovakia) and another on the center-Right (SPOLU-Civic Democracy), both backing Ms. Čaputová in her run for president.
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