Slovak Prime Minister Quits in the Wake of a Reporter’s Killing

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The prime minister of Slovakia resigned Thursday following mass demonstrations over the killing of a journalist who was uncovering government corruption. But officials said there would not be new elections and the ruling party would remain in power.

With anger still intense over the killings of the journalist, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, and the way the government has responded, it is not clear that the prime minister’s resignation will end the crisis. Many of the demonstrators who have taken to the streets in the largest numbers since the Velvet Revolution of 1989 have demanded the fall of the government and a new round of elections.

Leaders of the protests released a statement saying that leaders of the parties in the governing coalition had “humiliated and misled the whole public with their decision.” They planned to hold protests in more than 30 cities Friday.

Prime Minister Robert Fico, of the Smer-SD party, had faced three weeks of unrest and demands that he step down, and his governing coalition threatened to collapse if he remained at the helm. President Andrej Kiska had said that Slovakia needed either a deep restructuring of the government or new elections, and for several days it seemed that elections would result.

But on Wednesday, Fico said at a news conference that he had gone to Kiska, along with the leaders of the smaller parties in his coalition, “and offered to solve the political crisis by resigning my post as prime minister.” He delivered the resignation Thursday.

Earlier this week, the interior minister, Robert Kalinak, stepped down, and the justice minister and culture minister, among other officials, will also be replaced. Kalinak oversaw police, and was a primary target of protesters, who insisted that a credible investigation could not be conducted under him.

Peter Pellegrini, a former speaker of the Parliament who has also served as deputy prime minister, will succeed Fico.

Authorities have said that Kuciak, a reporter for the news organization Aktuality, and Kusnirova, both 27, were probably killed because of his work exposing government corruption and organized crime. His last article, published after his death by several news organizations, explored how people connected to a notorious Italian crime syndicate, the ‘ndrangheta, bought farmland in Slovakia to collect European Union agricultural subsidies, and possibly established ties to government officials.

Kuciak is believed to be the first journalist killed for reporting in Slovakia, and the country ranks high in independent assessments of press freedom. But a European Parliament delegation recently reported that Slovak journalists sometimes believed that uncovering corruption was unsafe.

On Thursday, another journalist, Lukas Milan, was sentenced in a defamation case to either 18 months in prison or a three-year probation during which he would be banned from journalism. The case stemmed from a magazine article he wrote linking high-ranking government officials to corruption. Milan is appealing.

This week, members of the European Parliament called for Europol, the EU police force, to investigate the killings of Kusnirova and Kuciak, whose bodies were found Feb. 25.

The new ministers in Slovakia’s government will be from the same coalition parties as those resigning, and in some cases, are close to their predecessors.

Kuciak’s and Kusnirova’s families are among those calling for deeper change.

“Jan and Martina have given us a chance to change this country so I ask you, use it,” Maria Kuciakova, Kuciak’s sister, wrote on Facebook. “Indifference won’t change anything, the current government might make a change, but not a good one. If we don’t do it, nobody will.”