Slovak neo-Nazi to run 1 of Slovakia's 8 regions after trouncing other candidates in election

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – A Slovak neo-Nazi whose party says NATO is a terrorist organization and wants the country to abandon Europe's common currency has won a regional election.

Marian Kotleba won 55.5 percent of votes in Saturday elections to lead the government in the central region of Banska Bystrica.

Kotleba was chairman of the banned neo-Nazi Slovak Togetherness-National Party, which organized anti-Roma rallies and expressed sympathy for the Slovak Nazi-puppet state during the World War II.

The results published Sunday show the leftist Smer-Social Democracy of Prime Minister Robert Fico winning six of the country's eight regions, cementing its position as Slovakia's strongest party.

Pavol Freso, who won the capital, Bartislava for the center-right opposition, called Kotleba's victory "a huge blow for democracy."