The PES Chairman, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, explained in The Slovak Spectator that "Most of our members stood solidly behind our values, according to which forming a coalition with the extreme right is unacceptable." "Smer" was readmitted on 14 February 2008 after Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico and SNS leader Jan Slota pledged in a letter to respect European values, human rights and all ethnic minorities. Although the party won the most votes in the 2010 parliamentary election, with a lead of 20% over the second-place Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ), they had not been able to form a government because of losses sustained by their coalition partners. Their result, 34.8%, gave them 62 seats in the National Council, but the HZDS failed to cross the 5% threshold, losing all their seats, and the Slovak National Party was reduced to nine seats. As a result, the four opposition centre-right parties – SDKÚ, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and "Most–Híd" – were able to form a new government. In the parliamentary election held on 10 March 2012, Smer-SD won 44.4% of the votes and became the largest party in the National Council, with an absolute majority of 83 seats (out of 150). The Smer-SD formed the first single-party government in Slovakia since 1993. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, Smer-SD came in first place nationally, receiving 24.09% of the vote and electing 4 MEPs. Despite suffering a significant loss in support as a result of strikes by teachers and nurses earlier in the year, Smer-SD won the 5 March 2016 parliamentary election with 28.3% of the vote and 49 out of 150 seats, and subsequently formed a coalition government with the Slovak National Party, Most-Híd, and Network. Prime Minister Robert Fico resigned in the wake of the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak and was replaced by Peter Pellegrini, with the same majority. However, Fico remained leader of Smer-SD. The party managed to score 18.29% in the parliamentary elections, which was 2 to 3 percent more than the latest polls showed, but it is still a decrease of 10% compared to previous elections. The party occupied 38 seats in parliament. The chairman of the Fico parliamentary group, Pellegrini, became the vice-chairman of the National Council for the Opposition on the basis of post-election negotiations.