Head of Slovakia party Richard Sulik resigns, says 'the step will help solve govt crisis'

In order to help open a way for a reconstituted Cabinet amid a political turmoil, the leader of one of the parties in Slovakia’s ruling coalition, Richard Sulik has resigned. The Freedom and Solidarity party leader served as the deputy prime minister and as Slovakia’s economy minister. According to the reports by AP, he said that he believed his step “will contribute to solving the government’s crisis”.

Freedom and Solidarity as well as another party had demanded that Slovakian Prime Minister Igor Matovic resign in order for the four-party coalition to survive. People demanded to leave the government if the prime minister did not step down. Matovik agreed to do so only if Sulik also resigned. The two of them had repeated clashes over how to handle the pandemic. Things accelerated when a secret deal came to light two weeks ago. It involved Slovakia’s agreement to acquire 2 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. 

The Prime Minister went ahead with the deal despite disagreement among his coalition partners. Defending the Sputnik V purchase, Matovic said that this would speed up the vaccination program. Parties who demanded his resignation opposed the idea as they believed that this would cast doubts on Slovakia’s clear pro-Western orientation. 

What is happening in Slovakia? 

The political crisis deepened earlier in the month of March when a member of the ruling coalition demanded reconstruction of the cabinet. The purchase of Sputnik V irked various other members of the coalition, who eventually called for the dissolution of the current cabinet. Sulk said that “we can hardly continue this way”. He further reasoned that the coalition has evidently not succeeded in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore certain unspecified changes were needed.  Meanwhile, For the People Party, another coalition partner did not comment on the crisis but also did not rule out the possibility of leaving the coalition.

Slovakia, a member of the European Union started innovating its population in late December. However, the PM, in an attempt to speed up the process, inked a deal with Russian authorities to secure 2 million doses of the vaccine. While Sputnik V has not applied for EU’s approval, Slovakia’s deputy PM Veronika Remisova said that any vaccine to be used in the country would require approval by the bloc.

Slovakia is the second European Union country to use the vaccine, which hasn't been approved by the European Medicines Agency, after Hungary. It hasn't been registered by Slovakia’s drug authority, but the deal was made possible by Health Minister Marek Krajci’s approval. As of now, the European bloc has approved only three vaccines for mass use. They include the one manufactured by AstraZeneca/Oxford, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech. The Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is based on a modified version of adenovirus, a common cold virus.

(Image Credits: AP)