<p>BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The leader of one of the parties in Slovakia’s ruling coalition resigned his government post Monday to help open the way for a reconstituted Cabinet amid a political crisis triggered by a secret deal to buy Russia’s coronavirus vaccine.</p>
<p>Freedom and Solidarity party leader Richard Sulik, who served as a deputy prime minister and as Slovakia’s economy minister, said he believed his step “will contribute to solving the government’s crisis.”</p>
<p>Freedom and Solidarity, as well as another partner party in the country’s year-old governing coalition, For People, had demanded that Slovakian Prime Minister Igor Matovic resign as a condition for the four-party coalition to survive. They threatened to leave the government, if the prime minister did not step down.</p>
<p>Matovic said he was ready to do that, if Sulik also resigned. The two men clashed repeatedly over how to handle the pandemic.</p>
<p>Matovic suggested he would remain in the government as an unspecified minister, but Sulik dismissed that idea.</p>
<p>Sulik also rejected some of Matovic’s other conditions for a deal to preserve the coalition, including a request for Sulik’s party to give up one of the three ministries it holds.</p>
<p>The crisis erupted when a secret deal came to light two weeks ago involving Slovakia’s agreement to acquire 2 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. The populist prime minister orchestrated the deal despite disagreement among his coalition partners.</p>
<p>Matovic has defended the Sputnik V purchase, saying it would speed up the country’s vaccination program.</p>
<p>But the two parties that demanded his resignation said the deal cast doubts on Slovakia’s clear pro-Western orientation. They said they wanted any vaccines used in the country to be approved by the European Union’s medicines regulator, which has not authorized Sputnik V. </p>
<p>Matovic and his Ordinary People party struck a deal a year ago to govern with the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party, the conservative For People, and We Are Family, a populist right-wing group that was allied with France’s far-right National Rally party.</p>
<p>Slovakia, a nation of 5.4 million residents, has reported almost 350,000 confirmed virus cases with 9,104 deaths.</p>
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