Slovakia's president to swear in new coalition government
In this File picture taken on Sunday, March 1, 2020, leader of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party Igor Matovic arrives for an interview day after the Slovakia's general election in Bratislava. Slovakia is set to have a new government after the country's president agreed to swear in a coalition led by the winning party in the parliamentary election. President Zuzana Caputova said she would appoint on Saturday a four-party coalition lead by Igor Matovic whose center-right populist opposition group Ordinary People captured 25 percent of the Feb. 29 vote. (AP Photo/Petr David…
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia is set to have a new government after the country’s president agreed on Monday to swear in a coalition led by the winning party in the parliamentary election.
President Zuzana Caputova said she would appoint on Saturday a four-party coalition led by Igor Matovic whose center-right populist opposition group Ordinary People captured 25% of the Feb. 29 vote.
The pro-western Matovic, 46, has made fighting corruption the central tenet of his campaign.
Matovic struck a deal to govern with the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party; the conservative For People, a party established by former President Andrej Kiska; and We Are Family, a populist right-wing group that is allied with France's far-right National Rally party.
Ordinary People will be the dominant party in the coalition with eight members in the Cabinet, including among others the post of the prime minister and the ministers of defense, finance, health and interior.
Freedom and Solidarity will control three ministries, For People will have two and We Are Family will be in charge of two ministries and will have a deputy prime minister post.
We Are Family chairman Boris Kollar will become Parliament’s speaker.
The victory for Ordinary People ended the reign of a long-dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party. Analysts said that showed a strong desire by voters to end corruption.