Like his chaotic management of his country for a year, Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic announced, Sunday March 28, his theatrical withdrawal from power. “On the eve of Holy Week, which we celebrate as a symbol of suffering, sacrifice and forgiveness, I have decided to make a gesture of forgiveness to the people who politically demanded my resignation as Prime Minister”, said at a press conference, Mr. Matovic, 47, in the style that marked his twelve months at the head of the central European country of 5.5 million inhabitants, that he has mostly managed from his Facebook account.
At the request of his coalition partners ranging from the center to the far right, Mr. Matovic announced that he was ready to be replaced by his finance minister, Eduard Heger, whom he will take over. In addition to this sleight of hand, Mr. Matovic will remain leader of his anti-corruption party Olano, acronym for “Ordinary People and Independent Personalities”.
Appointed in March 2020 after winning the legislative elections with 25% of the vote, Mr. Matovic, 47, suffered from his erratic management of the coronavirus crisis, which is currently affecting Slovakia hard. The head of government had notably tried to have its entire population tested in November, an operation he compared to “Landing of 1944”, but which had not stopped the epidemic at all. He then blamed his Minister of the Economy, accusing him of being responsible for thousands of deaths.
A staging that shocked
But above all, it was his unilateral decision to import Russian Sputnik V vaccines on 1er March, which sparked a massive government crisis. “This operation, carried out in the utmost secrecy and without waiting for authorization from the European Medicines Agency, triggered a crisis that has lasted for three weeks”, explains political scientist Grigorij Meseznikov.
With the help of the ultra-nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mr. Matovic negotiated with Moscow to immediately import 200,000 doses of Sputnik, which he had gone to welcome on the tarmac at Kosice airport, the country’s second largest city. This staging, which he had never performed for other brands of vaccines, shocked several of his coalition partners, who were firmly pro-European and who had not been consulted. Its foreign minister, Ivan Korcok, notably denounced a “Hybrid warfare operation”, before resigning on Wednesday March 24.
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