EFE/MARTIN

Leaders of the four are due to discuss the issue at a meeting on June 11. But experts and officials are sceptical they will bridge their differences.

"We don't expect to see a strong unified front as we did during the migrant crisis," said Vit Havelka, an analyst at the Prague-based Europeum think tank.

No government in Slovak history has faced challenges like those confronting the new administration led by Matovic and his anti-establishment OLANO party. Along with the deadly virus, it has the contagion of decades of corruption to content with.

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The Pandemic Stress Test

In Central Europe, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have declared states of emergency and Poland has declared a "state of epidemic threat".

"Imagine me being Harry Potter, having a magic stick and transforming all the planned projects into reality now," he continued. "We would immediately become a second Switzerland."

Of course, Babis was quickly reminded that despite his immense economic and political heft, his powers remain earthbound. 

Although this initiative appears new and has received a lot of attention in the media, the idea of Western Balkan countries coming closer together was in fact first floated at a regional summit in 2017 in Trieste, Italy.