PRAGUE – Slovakia’s prime minister said Sunday that he would give up paving the way for a reorganization of the cupboards that would defuse a political crisis triggered by a secret agreement to buy the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Prime Minister Igor Matovic said he had come forward to exchange positions with finance minister Eduard Heger of his people’s party and Heger said, “I’m content with the challenge. “
Heger said he would promptly open talks with coalition partners about a new government imaginable and planned to meet with President Zuzana Caputova on Monday for consultations.
The political crisis erupted when a secret agreement was reached three weeks ago related to the Slovakia agreement to obtain 2 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. Slovakia is part of the European Union of 27 countries, which has not yet approved the Russian vaccine.
Two parties in Matovic’s coalition government, Freedom and Solidarity and For the People, which have clashed several times with their people’s party on how to combat the pandemic, demanded their resignation as a condition for the coalition’s survival.
Matovic advocated the acquisition of Sputnik V, which would accelerate the vaccination programme in one of the EU’s most affected countries. Slovakia recorded around 9,500 deaths from the virus in the pandemic.
Matovic agreed to resign if his main rival, freedom and solidarity leader Richard Sulik, and Justice Minister Maria Kolkova of the People’s Party resigned, to which they did so. In the midst of the crisis, six ministers from the coalition’s four parties resigned.
But Freedom and Solidarity rejected some of Matovic’s other situations, adding a request to Sulik’s to renounce one of his three ministries. Matovic said Sunday that he had defected from any other situation “for the coalition to continue. “
Two coalition parties, the Conservatives for Individuals and right-wing populists We Are Family, said without delay that they accepted the prime minister’s plan as a way out of the crisis. Matovic resigned, he said it in a position to return to government.
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