Robert Fico has offered to resign as Slovakia’s prime minister in an effort to quell a gathering political crisis sparked by the murder of an investigative journalist.

Police have said that the killing of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova last month may have been linked to his reporting, a revelation that has prompted outrage across the central European country and thrown its politics into turmoil.

Last Friday tens of thousands of Slovaks took to the streets in cities and towns across the country in the biggest protests since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, calling on the government to resign.

In a brief statement on Wednesday evening, Mr Fico said that he was prepared to step down if President Andrej Kiska gave the prime minister’s centre-left Smer party, which rules in coalition with two smaller parties, the right to pick the next prime minister.

“Early elections would almost certainly be accompanied by chaos and instability,” he said, adding that it was important for the existing coalition to see out the remaining two years of its mandate.

“In fulfilling this common duty, I am personally willing to do the maximum. Individual ambitions must not be more important than the fate of a country at risk of chaos.”

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