Political uncertainty deepened in Slovakia on Sunday, as the pro-Western caretaker prime minister resigned ahead of an election that’s forecast to favor the Moscow-friendly party.
Eduard Heger stepped down two days after Foreign Minister Rastislav Káčer quit his cabinet.
After Heger’s resignation, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová named central bank Deputy Governor Ludovit Odor to lead a technocrat government. Čaputová plans to name the rest of Odor’s administration after May 15, she said.
“I decided to ask the president to remove my authority and to leave the president space to try with a technocrat government to stably and peacefully lead Slovakia to democratic parliamentary elections,” Heger said in a televized address, according to Reuters.
Heger, elected in 2021, has been running a caretaker government since last September, when the ruling coalition lost its majority over disagreements about energy costs.
Čaputová, who just completed a trip to London for the King Charles III’s coronation, will now decide on the head of a new caretaker government until the election scheduled in September.
Polls have shown that former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s pro-Russia Smer-SD party has been voters’ favorite to lead Slovakia, an EU and NATO country bordering Ukraine.
Speaking before Heger’s announcement, Fico had said that he would end Slovakia’s arms supply to Ukraine if elected to lead the next government.
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