Bratislava(Slovakia) : Slovakia’s president has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico, who offered to step down after facing a public backlash over the murder of a journalist, a junior partner in the ruling coalition said on Thursday. Speaking at the presidential palace after a meeting with the president on Thursday, Fico announced that his deputy prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, has been put forward to take the reins and establish a new government. “My role will be to have the new prime minister’s back and push for priorities that are important for [his party] Smer: a clear pro-European and pro-Nato orientation.”

Fico’s resignation comes weeks into a political crisis sparked by the murder in February of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová. Kuciak had been investigating alleged mafia infiltration into the country, with questions raised about Fico’s judgment after it emerged that one of his close aides, was the former business partner of an alleged member of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta clan.
Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico resigns amid controversy over the murder of Ján Kuciak.