The deputy governor of Slovakia’s central bank will take charge of the caretaker government in a bid to stabilise the country’s politics after the interim prime minister quit ahead of snap elections in September.
President Zuzana Čaputová announced the appointment of central banker Ľudovít Ódor late Sunday, hours after caretaker prime minister Eduard Heger tendered his resignation and called on Čaputová to replace him with a technocrat.
Slovakia’s deepening political crisis could pave the way for Robert Fico, a nationalist politician who is sceptical over aid for Ukraine, to return to power. Former premier Fico is leading the polls ahead of the elections, which are scheduled for September 30.
The trigger for Heger’s decision was a series of ministerial resignations in the past week, most notably that of agriculture minister Samuel Vlčan after he was embroiled in a scandal involving subsidies received by his recycling company. Foreign minister Rastislav Káčer followed a day later, resigning without a specific explanation.
Fico’s Smer party has been leading in opinion polls at slightly under 25 per cent of voting intentions, ahead of another opposition party, Hlas, which was founded by another former prime minister, Peter Pellegrini.
The revival of Smer can be largely traced back to Fico capitalising on popular resentment about high inflation, which he blames mostly on sanctions against Russia. Moscow was the main supplier of gas and oil to Slovakia before the Kremlin launched its all-out attack on Ukraine last year.
Fico has also claimed that Slovakian sovereignty is being threatened by pressure from Nato and the EU to support Ukraine, after Heger decided in March to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv without fully consulting parliament.
September’s vote could now prove “more critical, as a substantial proportion of the political spectrum is pledging to withdraw support for Ukraine and pressure for immediate negotiations”, said Róbert Vass, president of Slovak think-tank Globsec.
Fico resigned as prime minister in 2018 amid nationwide anti-corruption protests triggered by the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. Fico picked Pellegrini as his successor but the two men have since fallen out, and Pellegrini has so far ruled out any alliance with his former mentor.
Slovakia has been in a political quagmire since last September when internal feuding among the main parties in the coalition government resulted in Heger’s government losing its parliamentary majority.
Heger then lost a vote of no confidence in December, but was still asked by Čaputová to remain in charge of a caretaker administration until the snap election. Heger has meanwhile set up his own party, which he will test in September.
The nomination of Ódor’s cabinet members is not expected to take place until next week.
Heger’s resignation “is the climax for a government that had been gradually losing control and deepening Slovakia’s instability rather than reducing it”, said Slovak analyst Milan Nič from the German Council on Foreign Relations.
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