In Bratislava, a so-called civil servant government under the former central bank deputy governor Ludovít Ódor is to lead Slovakia until the formation of a government after the early parliamentary elections on 30 September. President Zuzana Čaputová appointed the cabinet of non-party personalities on Monday. In a short speech, she demanded of them "objectivity, transparency, professionalism, a humane policy and respect for critics". However, the government is also supposed to bring political projects to an end. Čaputová mentioned the areas of justice and education, as well as the preparation of the state budget.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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The Ódor government replaces a coalition of conservative and right-wing parties led by Eduard Heger, which has ruled without a parliamentary majority since last year and has had limited powers since a vote of no confidence in December. However, the same could be in store for Ódor, because so far most forces in parliament have left open whether they support him, or they have expressed their rejection like the Smer party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico. After 30 days at the latest, the new government must face a vote of confidence.

At least in terms of foreign policy, the new government stands for continuity during the six months in which it is expected to bear responsibility. The Foreign Minister is Miroslav Wlachovský, who has been in the Foreign Service for a quarter of a century and most recently advised the head of government.

Ministers should not stand as candidates in new elections

Defence Minister Martin Sklenár also has many years of experience as a military expert in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. The Minister of the Interior is Ivan Šimko, who is the only member of the new cabinet with a party-political past in the strict sense. He belonged to various centre-right parties, some of which split off from each other, most recently the Christian Democratic KDH.

The president has expressed the expectation to all members of the government to suspend any political memberships and not to run for the next parliament. This was assumed by liberal media close to her as the main reason for the change of government shortly before the end: that the incumbent cabinet members without parliamentary legitimacy do not derive election campaign advantages from their offices – or even personal financial advantages, such as the Minister of Agriculture, who recently resigned due to a corruption scandal.

In particular, this does not prevent Fico, who agitates with left-wing populist slogans, from rejecting the civil servant government out of hand. Ódor has been described as a puppet of George Soros, probably because he holds a visiting professorship at the Central European University, which is financed by the American billionaire. President Čaputová is also insulted by Fico and his supporters, with vocabulary that is supposed to mean that she is a vicarious agent of America.