The Slovakian government was overthrown by a vote of no confidence on Thursday evening. This brings a months-long dispute to an inglorious end. After a coalition crash, Prime Minister Eduard Heger had only led a minority government since September. Now his former coalition partner finally brought him down. It is the end of a government that promised when it took office in March 2020 that it would take action against the mafia entanglements of its predecessors. After the murder of the journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend in February 2018 made the extent of the corrupt structures clear, it was supposed to be a new political beginning.
The government’s fall comes just ahead of Friday’s meeting when a group of EU parliamentarians will once again visit Slovakia to check if everything is fine want. In Brussels in 2018, Slovakia was viewed as a state kidnapped by oligarchs. The occasion this time is the murder of two people in front of a gay bar in Bratislava in October. The mission is interested in the rights of sexual minorities and the status of the fight against corruption.
The latter doesn’t even look that bad. Despite the pandemic, war and economic crisis, since the government took office, intensive investigations have been carried out into the members of the former “mafia state”, as it is usually called in Slovakia. There were repeated raids on high-ranking representatives of the judiciary, ministries and offices. Arrests and charges followed. Former prime minister and current opposition leader Robert Fico was briefly arrested in the spring. He is officially under investigation for founding and leading a criminal organization.
Fico can no longer feel safe – this also probably leads to his loud appearance in the opposition. Recently, he has moved his Smer SD, which is social democratic in name, more and more into the right-wing extremist ranks. He himself organized protests against the government’s corona measures and has been pro-Russian and a NATO enemy since the beginning of the war, while Eduard Heger’s government is clearly pro-European and strongly supported Russia’s invaded Ukraine from the start. Fico’s party recently came to almost 16 percent in polls – but he has so far lacked partners for a return to power.
Search for a date for new elections
First of all, the toppled government must continue to work as a “government in resignation,” as it’s officially called — as long as parliament has agreed on new elections and found a date. This can take months; at least until May, as Parliament President Boris Kollár indicated on Thursday evening.
The minority government had warned against such a vacuum in politically difficult times. Finance Minister Igor Matovič said in the afternoon that Slovakia needs “calm”. “A fall of the government at this time will cause total chaos.” At the same time, Matovič had offered to resign if the opposition would withdraw their motion of no confidence.
In the spring of 2020, Igor Matovič won the elections, promising to fight the mafia – today his party is almost meaningless.
(PHOTO: RADOVAN STOKLASA/REUTERS)
But the offer came too late. Because Matovič did not want to resign in the summer, the government finally broke up. Matovič had already resigned as prime minister in spring 2021. He is the founder and chairman of the populist party Ol’ano, which stands for “Ordinary People and Independent People”. From the beginning, the dispute in the government had been sparked again and again by his self-important, aggressive demeanor.
According to current polls, the Ol’ano would get just seven percent in elections, and the coalition partners are no better off. As things stand today, former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini has a good chance of returning – he came from the Fico cabinet. After losing the 2020 election, he left Ficos Smer SD and founded his own party, the populist, social-democratic Hlas (Voice). He is currently leading the polls with her. Slovak political scientist Milan Nič from the German Council on Foreign Relations estimates that the pro-EU course and support for Ukraine would definitely continue with Pellegrini.
Igor Matovič, whom quite a few blame for the mess, gave a typical performance on Thursday evening: barely signed, he snatched his resignation from the officials in the presidential palace. The government may have fallen, but the chaos is far from over.