Slovakian president picks technocrat government after prime minister quits

Zuzana Caputova chose central bank deputy governor Ludovit Odor to lead the government after Eduard Heger resigned on Sunday

Slovakia’s political scene is fragmented ahead of an election that the largest opposition party, opposed to continued military aid to Ukraine, may win

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Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova delivers a statement at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava, Slovakia on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:57am, 8 May 2023

Slovak President Zuzana Caputova picked central bank Deputy Governor Ludovit Odor to lead a technocrat government after caretaker Prime Minister Eduard Heger resigned on Sunday just months before early elections in September.

Slovakia, a European Union and Nato member, has struggled through months of political uncertainty as Heger’s ruling coalition was weakened, coming amid a period of high inflation and war in neighbouring Ukraine.

The country’s political scene is fragmented ahead of an election that the largest opposition party, opposed to continued military aid to Kyiv, may win.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger at the Presidential Palace, in Bratislava, Slovakia on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Heger, who has led the government since 2021 – most recently in a caretaker capacity – resigned after a spate of senior resignations and opposition calls to move aside. Caputova said she would name the rest of Odor’s technocrat government after May 15.

“I consider it important for a smooth ending and transfer of agendas between governments,” she said in a televised address.

Odor, 46, has been a deputy governor of the National Bank of Slovakia since 2018.

Slovakia lurched into crisis in September last year when Heger’s ruling centre-right coalition lost its majority after the libertarian SaS party quit, unhappy with efforts to help people hit by soaring energy and food costs.