Slovak's caretaker PM quits after political wrangling

Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Sunday he had asked the president to relieve him of his duties, after ministers' resignations weakened his cabinet that is serving in a caretaker capacity before elections in September.

Heger is due to meet President Zuzana Caputova, who has the power to appoint a new caretaker prime minister, later on Sunday. Heger has faced calls from the opposition to make way for a technocrat administration to lead the central European country until early elections to take place in September.

"I decided to ask the president to remove my authority and to leave the president space to try with a technocrat government to stably and peacefully lead Slovakia to democratic parliamentary elections," he said in a televised news conference. The ruling coalition lost its majority in September last year when the libertarian SaS party quit and later accused the government of not doing enough to help people with energy costs that last year hit record levels in Europe.

In common with other European states, Slovakia has provided households and companies with payments to mitigate the impact of high energy costs and wider inflation. But the wrangling between parties has all but paralysed politics in the NATO and European Union member that has been a strong backer of its neighbour Ukraine since Russia's invasion.