Slovakia - May 2023

A new interim technocratic government was sworn in. The government will be charged with steering Slovakia through a period of political crisis until snap elections, scheduled for September, can be held. President Zuzana Čaputová appointed economist Ľudovít Ódor to lead the new government. The previous caretaker government led by Eduard Heger resigned after it emerged that a company affiliated with former Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan, was granted a EUR 1.4 million subsidy by the Environment Ministry. The case is currently under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NAKA).

Sources: Euronews, DW, Balkan Insight (1), Balkan Insight (2), The Slovak Spectator, Pravda, Teraz

A Slovakian criminal court has acquitted controversial businessman Marian Kočner of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner in 2018. The court sentenced Kočner’s associate Alena Zsuzsová to 25 years in prison. Kočner and Zsuzsová were acquitted in 2020 due to a lack of evidence, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in 2022. Protests over media freedom and political corruption in conjunction with Kuciak’s death triggered the 2018 fall of the Smer government, led by populist Robert Fico, who has since emerged as a strong contender in the September elections. Politicians and oligarchs have sought to influence media to undermine efforts to prosecute the high levels of corruption that came to light following Kuciak’s murder, according to a May report by the International Press Institute. 

Sources: Al Jazeera, Balkan Insight, IPI, Pravda, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)