May 7. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputová, has announced the formation of a technical government, made up of experts, which will manage the country until the elections scheduled for September 30 after the resignation of the prime minister, Eduard Heger, this Sunday.
The new government will be led by Ludovít Ódor, until now deputy governor of the National Bank of Slovakia, Caputová explained in a public appearance in which he indicated that all the portfolios have already been assigned.
Caputová has announced the decision after holding a meeting with the president of Parliament, Boris Kollár, and with the still acting prime minister, Heger, reported the Slovakian newspaper ‘Pravda’.
“Half a year is enough for a government of experts to stabilize the situation in Slovakia,” explained the Slovak leader. She has also highlighted that she has been preparing a technical government for a long time and that is why she already has the entire cabinet at her disposal.
“They will have to put an end to their responsibilities in their current positions and then I will name them as the new government on May 15,” Caputová said.
The leader has indicated that she will convene the leaders of the political parties in the coming days and only later will she announce the names of the ministers.
Caputová stressed that the main criterion for the selection of ministers is their ability. “In addition, I have chosen people who are not candidates in the next legislative elections. They will be experts for whom governing will not be an electoral campaign,” she pointed out.
Ódor has been deputy governor of the National Bank of Slovakia since 2018. He studied at Comenius University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and has worked as a financial market analyst for CSOB and as an economist for the Slovak Rating Agency.
Between 2003 and 2005 he was the chief economist and director of the Financial Policy Institute of the Ministry of Finance and later joined the board of directors of the National Bank of Slovakia. In September 2010 he was appointed adviser to the prime minister.
Heger’s resignation follows Caputová’s refusal to accept the prime minister’s proposals to replace the resigned ministers, Samuel Vlcan and Rastislav Kácer, and the approval of a motion of no confidence filed against Heger himself in December.
Heger has, however, denied that he is “covering up” the scandal that has caused the resignation of Minister Vlcan due to millionaire subsidies and has ensured that the decision to resign was made two weeks ago.
DIFFICULT PARLIAMENTARY ARITHMETIC
The president of Parliament, Boris Kollár, of the Somos Familia party, has declared on the RTVS network that the resignation was foreseeable. “This chaos did not start yesterday, but in December, when Parliament declared its lack of confidence in this government. In this situation, the options of the presidency are clear,” he explained, while advocating for the formation of an “official” government with the support of political parties.
The president of the Slovak Directorate-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party, Robert Fico, agreed with this option and recalled that the country is not a presidential republic. “It is not possible for the president to name a government without consulting Parliament and thus control the Executive for five months, until early elections,” argued the former prime minister.
The party with the most parliamentary support, the conservative Party of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OL’aNO), warned on Saturday that if a government is formed, the president must have its political formation. “If she wants to have our support, to have a responsible approach, she must first negotiate with our movement. If not, she will not be able to count on our support,” said OL’aNO leader Igor Matovic.
The 150 seats in the Slovak Parliament are widely distributed among up to twelve political parties after the February 2020 elections and the one with the most representation is OL’aNO, with just 37 seats, so broad consensus will be necessary to achieve majorities. The next elections are scheduled for September 30, 2023.
