Slovakia to Get ‘Expert’ Government But Return to Populism Looms

The departed but mostly unlamented coalition government, the first version of which was pieced together in February 2020 by four parties in a push to unseat Fico's Smer party following eight years of increasing authoritarianism and corruption, certainly wasn't helped by circumstances.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit immediately after it assumed office, helping to unseat the combustible Igor Matovic - leader of OlaNO, a ragtag centre-right populist party that surprised everyone by garnering most votes in the election - from the prime minister's chair. Russia then unleashed its war in neighbouring Ukraine, followed by an energy crisis and vicious inflation spike.

With Matovic demoted but continuing his provocative behaviour from the seat of the Finance Ministry, the grip of his replacement Heger slipped late last year, when after months of ill-tempered sniping, the SAS coalition party quit the government.

Opposition parties called for a snap election, but the governing parties resisted and delayed the vote to September 30. President Zuzana Caputova allowed Heger to limp on with a minority cabinet.

But having failed to win a vote of confidence in parliament, that cabinet remained precarious. Hence, a corruption scandal around the agriculture minister that flared up late last week swiftly engulfed it, and Heger fell on his sword on Sunday.

Caputova has been quick to name a temporary technocratic replacement. After half a year of waiting in the wings, Ludovit Odor will finally get his chance to govern Slovakia, when his caretaker government is appointed as expected on May 15.

The deputy governor of the central bank had been lined up in the background, ready for such a collapse, since the start of the year. The economist is little...