Politics Stabilising Under New PM With Familiar Faces In Gov't

It is just over a week since then-Finance Minister Eduard Heger and Prime Minister Igor Matovic swapped political offices after a near-collapse of the governing coalition sparked by Matovic's purchase of unapproved Russian COVID-19 vaccines. Ministerial resignations and the withdrawal of one party from the governing coalition forced Matovic to hand over to Heger, with the former taking Heger's seat at the finance ministry.

• The bureaucratic Heger is seen as a polar opposite to the bombastic Matovic in terms of presentation and personality.
• However, both men hail from the same centre-right populist Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OL'aNO) party, which Matovic still heads up. As such there is unlikely to be any significant change in policy under the 'new' gov't, which contains almost all of the same Cabinet ministers as the Matovic gov't.
• The prospect of the gov't falling apart also seems slim, with political scientist Juraj Marusiak from the Slovak Academy of Sciences - talking to Balkan Insight - saying that "The fear of early elections can keep this coalition glued together. Especially the smallest partner, Za ludi [10 seats in the National Council], know they are in danger of falling apart and not making it into the new parliament, if there were new elections."