Slovak Government Falls Over Russian Vaccines

The Slovak Prime Minister and his government have resigned to end a political crisis caused by a secret agreement to purchase the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.

The President of the country accepted the resignation of Igor Matović and asked Eduard Heger from Matović's Ordinary People party to form a new government.

The crisis erupted when a secret contract was made public in early March, including Slovakia's agreement to procure two million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The populist prime minister organized the signing of the contract despite disagreements among his coalition partners.

Heger was the Minister of Finance in the outgoing government. It is the first European government to fall over handling the pandemic. But this move will keep the current four-party coalition in power and avoid the possibility of early elections.

A new government could be sworn in before President Zuzana Čaputová as early as this week.