One year to the day after coming to power, the Slovak government is hanging by a thread.
Prime Minister (OLaNO, center) Igor Matovic announced on Sunday that he was ready to resign to resolve the politico-health crisis he caused, notably by deciding to acquire two million doses of Sputnik V vaccines. This, despite the opposition of part of his government and without waiting for the green light from the European Medicines Agency, like Hungary before it.
Despite the outcry over the decision, the Prime Minister refused to cancel the order, after consulting his 287,000 Facebook followers, and personally greeted the first shipment of Russian vaccines that arrived on March 1 at Kosice airport, in the east of the country.
The Minister of the Economy, Richard Sulik (SaS, liberal), and another minister of the liberal party Za Ludi, threatened to leave the quadripartite coalition if Matovic does not resign by Tuesday.
But Sulik did not finally wait for the end of the ultimatum and announced his resignation on Monday.
The Prime Minister, for his part, set conditions on his: remain a member of the government and obtain the departure of four ministers, including that of Richard Sulik - whom he had recently called an
"idiot"
on the radio.
Read also: Igor Matovic, the enfant terrible of Slovakia under the test of power
Matovic's recent lone rider precipitated a crisis that had been brewing for several months in the center-right government.
“Our coalition partners used the delivery of Sputnik to provoke a crisis.
Initially, their only request was the resignation of Marek Krajci
(Minister of Health)
.
We responded to this request.
And now they are also asking for my resignation, ”
he wrote on Facebook.
Slovakia, cited for a time as an example during the first epidemic wave (early containment, large-scale tests), now has one of the highest Covid mortality and contamination rates in the world, with more than 9,000 deaths and around 350 000 cases for 5.4 million inhabitants.
The government has been sharply criticized for handling the pandemic erratically and loosening restrictions too quickly this summer.
On March 16, Liberal President Zuzana Caputova called on the Prime Minister to present her with measures to end the political and health crisis.
"He had no answer for me"
she regretted at the end of the interview, describing the situation as
"
political
agony"
.
The fear of risky early elections
In addition to the style of this former media mogul, vilified for his too personal management of power and his unpredictability, the entire government alliance is faltering.
A poll published last weekend by state television RTVS showed that 83% of Slovaks were unhappy with the government and 82% of them wanted Matovic to step down.
A year ago, the results of the legislative elections - the first since the villainous assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his companion on February 21, 2018, which had led to an unprecedented citizen mobilization since 1989 and the resignation of the powerful Prime Minister populist leftist, Robert Fico (Smer-SD), - had given hope to the country traumatized by years of corruption at the highest level of the state.
Read also: Slovakia: the ruling party swept away by the anti-corruption vote
The victory of the party of the "ordinary people" (OLaNO) and the political UFO Matovic, at the end of a campaign centered on the fight against corruption, had been seen as the beginning of a new era, marked since by the arrest and prosecution of corrupt police, prosecutors and judges.
Marian Kocner, the mafia businessman who was accused of having ordered the murder of Jan Kuciak and then acquitted for these facts, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for large-scale fraud.
Read also: In Slovakia, surprise acquittal at the Jan Kuciak trial
But this revenge on the Fico era was not enough to create a governmental alchemy between the four parties of the center and the right.
Many now fear that this crisis will lead to early elections, if the ruling coalition fails to keep up with another head of government.
The name of the current Minister of Finance, Acting Minister of Health and member of OLANo, Eduard Heger, is mentioned to replace Igor Matovic.
In case of failure, the new party of the former prime minister and ally of Robert Fico, Peter Pellegrini, is on the alert: Voice is credited with 21.4%, according to the RTVS poll, in the event of an election anticipated, against 11.3% for OLaNO.
