Slovakia's new technocratic government fell far short of winning a vote of confidence on June 15, winning just 34 deputies' support out in the 150-member parliament. A majority of 76 deputies in the parliament of 150 was needed to win the confidence vote.

The cabinet will now remain in office until the snap elections on September 30, but with reduced powers.

Prime Minister Ludovit Odor,  a former vice-governor of the central bank, was appointed by President Zuzana Caputova last month after the previous caretaker cabinet of Eduard Heger became dysfunctional amid a series of resignations.

Odor submitted his cabinet’s programme to the parliament earlier this week, triggering the confidence vote. Odor told journalists earlier that he did not see it as very “realistic” that his cabinet would obtain confidence after he met with parliamentary parties.

Only deputies from the neoliberal SaS, from Heger’s new centre-right Democrats party, and Tomas Valasek, representing the non-parliamentary centrist Progressive Slovakia, backed Odor.

Altogether 136 deputies were present and 43 deputies were against, including deputies from the populist Smer-SD, led by the increasingly pro-Kremlin Robert Fico, and deputies from the far-right Republika, neofascist LSNS and several non-aligned deputies.   

Another 54 deputies abstained, including deputies from Smer-SD’s breakaway centre-left Hlas-SD party of Robert Pellegrini, and deputies from right-wing populist OLaNO and radical rightwing populist Sme rodina (We Are a Family).

During a lengthy parliamentary discussion running up to the vote, Fico accused the cabinet of “helping Progressive Slovakia (PS) to be more visible”. Smer-SD has been in the lead of most of the spring polls, followed by Hlas-SD, but PS has been making gains, with some polls showing it has closed on Hlas-SD or even edged ahead.

Fico has repeatedly been labelling Odor’s cabinet as the “Caputova government” in what many analysts and commentators interpret as Fico’s election campaign strategy. Caputova was a prominent member of Progressive Slovakia but rescinded her membership before taking up presidential office.   

The Democrats declared support for Odor’s cabinet shortly before the vote, with Heger posting on his Facebook profile that technocratic government is an “opportunity to turn off the [budget] deficit backstop”. Heger pointed out that a cabinet with parliamentary backing will be under greater control of the parliament and deputies can have a more significant say in the drafting of the budget.

SaS declared support for Odor’s cabinet shortly after the appointment last month.  “I consider it extremely stupid not to vote for the cabinet,” SaS leader Richard Sulik stated then, explaining that without parliamentary backing, you cannot instigate confidence motions against the cabinet in the future.

The new technocratic government has made it one of its top priorities to prepare a 2024 budget by October 15, and it is also likely to propose some cuts for this year.

During one of his speeches at the Parliament, Odor criticised the deputies for not having done enough to combat inflation, saying it is “a long-term issue” that “did not begin this May”, and asking rhetorically “why does this cabinet have to address this during a shortened term?”