Slovakia: Prime Minister Igor Matovic offers to resign

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Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic

Photo: Jaroslav Novak / AP

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Igor Matovic has announced his readiness to resign.

However, he tied his offer to the condition that he would remain in the cabinet as a simple minister.

He also called for Economics Minister Richard Sulik and Justice Minister Maria Kolikova to leave the government entirely.

The two belong to the coalition parties SaS and Za ludi.

"We consider it absolutely inevitable that Richard Sulik leaves the government in order to bring peace to the cabinet," said Matovic on behalf of his party Olano, according to the dpa news agency.

Dispute over Sputnik-V vaccine

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The severe government crisis was triggered by the dispute over the correct corona crisis management.

Matovic had obtained the Russian vaccine Sputnik V on his own initiative.

This led to considerable resentment among his three coalition partners, who first wanted to wait for a decision by the EU authorities on the approval of the active ingredient.

The conservative-populist Matovic has been Prime Minister of Slovakia with its almost 5.5 million inhabitants for exactly one year.

According to a recent poll, the opposition Social Democrats would be the strongest force in new elections.

They would come to 21.4 percent, followed by Olano with 11.3 percent and SaS with 10.3 percent.

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bah / dpa / Reuters