The resignation of Health Minister Zuzana Zvolenská (a Smer-SD nominee) from her post is in connection to the upcoming elections, be it local (November the 15th) or general (in two years time), according to political and health policy analysts. She stepped down on Monday over the suspiciously overpriced purchase of a CT scanner by Piešťany hospital.
"It comes too late; she wasn't able to deliver expected results for a longer time, a few examples are the unsuccessful project of a unitary state run health insurer, and the postponed e-Health project. If Prime Minister Robert Fico had wanted to dismiss her due to inaction, it would have been right. His appeal to her to step down over the overpriced CT scanner is only a pretext. He has demonstrated his willingness to replace unpopular members of his Cabinet as part of Smer's political strategy”, said Health Policy Institute senior analyst Tomaš Szalay. The Premier called upon Parliamentary Vice-chair Renata Zmajkovičová from his own party, who also served as the hospital's Supervisory Board chair, to step down too.
Political analyst Jan Baranek thinks that with this step, Fico has silenced a portion of his critics. “He wants to show (voters) that he can be trusted, that he is capable of taking action against his own people. With this move, he has unofficially begun campaigning for the general election. This is a case of flagrant clientelism and people see it”, he said. According to Baranek, it'll be interesting to monitor further developments in the case because resignations of Health Minister Zuzana Zvolenská and Parliamentary Vice-chair Renata Zmajkovičová are not enough. In both Szalay's and Baranek's opinion, Zvolenská failed to accomplish much as a minister.
