Slovakia’s interim prime minister tendered his resignation on Sunday, deepening the country’s political crisis and potentially paving the way for a nationalist politician skeptical of helping Ukraine return to power.
The resignation of Prime Minister Edvard Heger means that President Zuzana Shaputova will need to appoint another caretaker prime minister until a government is formed after snap elections in September. In a televised speech on Sunday, Heger urged her to find a “technocratic government” that could guarantee stability in the coming months.
Heger’s decision was prompted by a series of ministerial resignations in the past week, most notably that of Agriculture Minister Samuel Flann after he was embroiled in a scandal involving subsidies received by his recycling company. Foreign Minister Rastislav Kajer followed suit a day later, resigning without specific explanation.
Slovakia’s crisis has increased the chances that Robert Fico and his Smer party will return unexpectedly early, which could weaken the country’s support for Ukraine. Samir leads in opinion polls with just under 25 percent of voting intentions, ahead of another opposition party, Hellas, which was founded by another former prime minister, Peter Pellegrini.
Smer’s revival can be largely attributed to Fico capitalizing on popular discontent with high inflation which he often attributes to sanctions against Russia. Moscow was a major supplier of gas and oil to Slovakia before launching its all-out offensive in Ukraine last year.
Fico also alleged that Slovak sovereignty was threatened by pressure from NATO and the European Union to support Ukraine, after Heger decided in March that Sending MiG-29 fighter jets Kiev without proper consultation with Parliament.
Robert Vas, head of the Slovak think tank Globsec, said the September vote could now be “more significant, with a large portion of the political spectrum pledging to withdraw support for Ukraine and push for immediate negotiations”.
Fico resigned as prime minister in 2018 amid nationwide anti-corruption protests sparked by the killing of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. He chose Fico 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 quagmire since last September, when an internal dispute between the main parties in the coalition government led to Heger’s government losing its parliamentary majority. Heger then lost a vote of no confidence in December, but Saputová asked him to remain in charge of the caretaker administration until early elections. Meanwhile, Heger formed his own party, which he would audition for in September.
“The president now has no other choice but to appoint a technocratic government,” said Slovakian analyst Milan Nisz of the German Council on Foreign Relations. “What happened now is the peak of a government that was gradually losing control and adding to the instability in Slovakia instead of reducing it.”