Igor Matovic

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.

PM Viktor Orban delivers keynote speech at the opening session of CPAC Hungary, in Budapest, 04 May 2023. EPA-EFE/Szilard Koszticsak

In other news, former Slovak PM Igor Matovic fights with LGBT activists outside parliament; speculation mounts in Poland about mystery 'rocket'; and Czech President Pavel can't keep still.

The ruthless double murder of two innocent people on February 21, 2018, triggered the largest wave of anti-government protests in Slovakia's modern history.

The ride was always likely to be bumpy given the combative characters of OLaNO leader Igor Matovic and Richard Sulik of the conservative Freedom & Solidarity (SaS) party. But amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the fact the coalition has lasted this long is already something of a surprise to many.

Since then, he has strived to make amends. In early April, he joined the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on her trip to Ukraine's capital and announced that Slovakia would hand over its Soviet-era air defence system to the country.

Slovakia has officially stopped using the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, the Slovakian Ministry of Health said, quoted by AFP.

A second dose was given yesterday to the last six people who chose to receive the Russian vaccine.

"A total of 18,500 people have been vaccinated with Sputnik V," said Zuzana Elyasova, a spokeswoman for the health ministry.

The camp was run by Herak, who is alleged to have requested the presence of the victim at the camp where she was supposed to be helping out. The police launched the investigation in November after information was brought to them by the director of the orphanage where the victim was residing.

With a lack of vaccine supply blunting the Czech vaccination drive, Zeman announced in March that he had contacted Russia and China to ask them to send vaccines. When the health and foreign ministers opposed using either Sputnik V or Sinopharm without EU approval, the president demanded their heads.

Still, describing Heger's cabinet as "new" is arguably a step too far. Heger from the OLaNO (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities) movement merely swapped seats with party leader Matovic, and five of the six ministers who resigned during the crisis have since returned to their posts, with the only new face at the health department.

The New York-based Freedom House watchdog organisation says in its latest annual report, published on Wednesday, that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed European democracies of all political types under "severe strain".