Slovak PM Quits, President Will Appoint Technocratic Cabinet

(Bloomberg) -- Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger will step down months before early elections planned for Sept. 30 after his caretaker cabinet started to fall apart, he said Sunday in Bratislava.

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“Slovakia, traumatized by conflicts, doesn’t deserve the political crisis to continue for even one more day,” Heger told journalists. Four ministers had left the stopgap administration since Heger lost a vote of no confidence in December. The latest casualty was the agriculture minister, who quit last week following a report that a company he owns had received 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million) in European Union funds.

President Zuzana Caputova said she’ll appoint a non-partisan cabinet in the week starting May 15 to govern until the early election. Ludovit Odor, deputy governor of Slovak National Bank, will lead the new, technocratic administration as prime minister.

Heger had said earlier he intended to stay in power until the September vote to “ensure stability” for the eastern European Union member state of some 5.4 million people. Still, in a nationally televised speech on Thursday, he admitted that he’s “co-responsible for chaos in the country.”

His government lost a no-confidence vote in December after years of bickering over issues ranging from public spending and financial support for families, to how to handle the pandemic, and Europe’s cost-of-living crisis.

Even so, the administration enjoyed a strong international reputation. It supports EU sanctions against Russia and provided significant military aid to Ukraine, including MiG-29 jets, infantry vehicles, and the S-300 missile system.

Former three-time Prime Minister Robert Fico leads opinion polls four months before the Slovakian vote. He questions support for sanctions against Russia and has said he’ll stop arms deliveries to Ukraine, hinting his return to power could impact future EU’s decisions.

(Updated with the PM’s and President’s comments from second paragraph.)

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