Slovak caretaker premier Heger quits as political crisis deepens

Slovakia’s caretaker prime minister tendered his resignation on Sunday, deepening his country’s political crisis and potentially paving the way for a nationalist politician who is sceptical over aid for Ukraine to return to power.

The resignation of premier Eduard Heger means that president Zuzana Čaputová will need to appoint another interim premier until a government is formed after snap elections in September. In a televised address on Sunday, Heger urged her to find “a technocrat government” that could guarantee stability in the coming months.

The trigger for Heger’s decision was a spate of ministerial resignations in the past week, most notably that of agriculture minister Samuel Vlčan after he was embroiled in a scandal involving subsidies received by his recycling company. Foreign minister Rastislav Káčer followed a day later, resigning without a specific explanation.

Slovakia’s crisis has raised the chances of Robert Fico and his Smer party making an unexpectedly early comeback, potentially weakening the country’s support for Ukraine. Smer has been leading in opinion polls at slightly under 25 per cent of voting intentions, ahead of another opposition party, Hlas, which was founded by another former premier, Peter Pellegrini.

The revival of Smer can be largely traced back to Fico capitalising on popular resentment about high inflation that he blames mostly on sanctions against Russia. Moscow was the main supplier of gas and oil to Slovakia before launching its all-out attack on Ukraine last year.

Fico has also claimed that Slovakian sovereignty is being threatened by pressure from Nato and the EU to support Ukraine, after Heger decided in March to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv without proper consultations with parliament.

September’s vote could now prove “more critical, as a substantial proportion of the political spectrum is pledging to withdraw support for Ukraine and pressure for immediate negotiations,” said Róbert Vass, president of Slovak think-tank Globsec.

Fico resigned as prime minister in 2018 amid nationwide anti-corruption protests triggered by the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. Fico picked 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 internal feuding among the main parties in the coalition government resulted in Heger’s government losing its parliamentary majority. Heger then lost a vote of no confidence in December, but was still asked by Čaputová to remain in charge of a caretaker administration until the snap election. Heger has meanwhile set up his own party which he will test in September.

“The president has now no other choice than to appoint a technocratic government,” said Slovak analyst Milan Nič from the German Council on Foreign Relations. “What has now happened is the climax for a government that had been gradually losing control and deepening Slovakia’s instability rather than reducing it.”