Iveta Radičová

Iveta Radičová
Prime Minister of Slovakia
Incumbent
Assumed office  8 July 2010
President	Ivan Gašparovič
Preceded by	Robert Fico
Minister of Labour
In office 17 October 2005 – 4 July 2006
Prime Minister	Mikuláš Dzurinda
Preceded by	Ľudovít Kaník
Succeeded by	Viera Tomanová
Member of the National Council
In office 4 July 2006 – 23 April 2009
Born	7 December 1956 (1956-12-07) (age 53) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Political party	Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Stano Radič (d. 2005)
Alma mater	Comenius University in Bratislava University of Oxford

Iveta Radičová, PhDr. PhD. (born 7 December 1956) is the current Prime Minister of Slovakia and a member of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party. She was sworn into office on July 8, 2010^[1] as the head of a four-party center-right coalition government following the 2010 Slovak parliamentary election. She is Slovakia's first female prime minister.

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Academic career 3 Political career 3.1 Prime Minister 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Personal life

Radičová was born into a Slovak-Jewish family in Bratislava on December 7, 1956. She has one daughter and is the widow of Stano Radič, a famous Slovak comedian and actor who died in 2005. In addition to her native Slovak, Radičová speaks English and Russian fluently and has good knowledge of German and Polish.^[2]

[edit] Academic career

Radičová began her academic career studying sociology at the Comenius University in Bratislava, earning a PhDr. in 1981. Radičová worked as a sociologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences from 1979-1989, coordinating a research team for family policies. In 1990, she pursued postdoctoral studies for a year at the University of Oxford.^[3] Upon her return to Slovakia in 1991, Radičová founded the Center for Analysis of Social Policy, one of Slovakia's first NGOs, and served as its executive director until 2005.^[4] During this period, Radičová also lectured in the departments of sociology, political science, and social work at Comenius University.^[5] In 2005, she was named a Professor of Sociology by the Faculty of Philosophy at Comenius University, making her Slovakia's first female professor of sociology.^[6]

[edit] Political career

Radičová began her political career in 1990 as a member of the Public Against Violence movement (Slovak: Verejnosť proti násiliu), serving as a spokesperson of the party until 1992.^[7] From 2005 to 2006, she served as Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family in the center-right government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda. Radičová was then elected as a member of the Parliament of Slovakia on the party list of Dzurinda's liberal-conservative Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party (SDKU-DS) in the 2006 parliamentary election.^[8]

Following the 2006 election, the SDKU-DS went into opposition. Radičová officially became a member of SDKU-DS following the election and was subsequently elected as deputy chairman of the party.^[9] Radičová also served as deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on social affairs and housing.^[10]

In 2009, Radičová was selected as the SDKU-DS's candidate in the 2009 presidential election and was also endorsed by the conservative Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK-MKP). In the first round of the election held on March 21, Radičová received a surprisingly strong 38.05% of the vote and came in second place to incumbent President Ivan Gašparovič, who failed to receive a majority of the vote. Radičová was defeated by Gašparovič in the second round of the election held on April 4, receiving 44.47% of the vote. She is the only woman to advance to the second round of a presidential election in Slovak history.

Shortly after her loss in the presidential election, Radičová encountered controversy after casting a parliamentary vote for an absent party colleague in violation of parliamentary rules. As a result of the controversy, Radičová resigned her seat in parliament on April 23, 2009.^[11]

[edit] Prime Minister

In early 2010, Radičová was selected as the SDKU-DS's election leader for the 2010 parliamentary election in a primary election, defeating former Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš. During the election campaign her party ran on a platform of fiscal discipline and pledged to reinvigorate the economy after it suffered a 4.7% decline in 2009.^[12]

In the election on June 12, 2010, the SDKU-DS came in a distant second place with 15.42% of the vote, far behind the center-left Smer party of Prime Minister Robert Fico, which received 34.79% of the votes. However, Fico's coalition partners, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and the national-conservative HZDS, performed poorly, with HZDS failing to win any seats in parliament. As a result, a coalition of four center-right opposition parties - the liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the ethnic Hungarian Most–Híd party, and Radičová's SDKU-DS - were able to form a majority in parliament with 79 out of 150 seats. After Fico proved unable to form a new government, Radičová, as leader of the largest opposition party, was asked to form a government by President Gašparovič on June 23, 2010.^[13] Radičová was installed as Slovakia's first female prime minister on July 8, 2010, heading a coalition government of SDKU-DS, SaS, KDH, and Most-Híd.

Radičová pledged that her new government would cut state spending to reduce the budget deficit, while steering clear of tax rises. She stated, "We are ready to take responsibility over the country at a time when it is coping with the impact of a deep economic crisis and the irresponsible decisions of our political predecessors." She also said that Slovakia's guarantee of 4.5 billion euros to the EU stabilization fund was exorbitant, but she also stated that she will not block approval of the scheme within the EU, though she sought to renegotiate her country's contribution to it.^[14] Her new government sought, through coalition partner Most-Hid, to rebuild links with Hungary that were badly damaged by the adoption of contentious language and citizenship laws.^[15]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Fico	Prime Minister of Slovakia 2010–present	Incumbent

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Slovakia First Slovak Republic Jozef Tiso (1939) · Vojtech Tuka (1939–1944) · Štefan Tiso (1944–1945) Slovak Republic Vladimír Mečiar (1993–1994) · Jozef Moravčík (1994) · Vladimír Mečiar (1994–1998) · Mikuláš Dzurinda (1998–2006) · Robert Fico (2006–2010) · Iveta Radičová (2010–present)

v • d • e Government of Slovakia 2002–2006 Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda Deputy prime ministers Pál Csáky · Daniel Lipšic · Jirko Malchárek · Ivan Mikloš · Robert Nemcsics · Pavol Rusko · Lucia Žitňanská Ministers Martin Fedor · Martin Fronc · László Gyurovszky · Rudolf Chmel · Ľudovít Kaník · Eduard Kukan · Daniel Lipšic · Juraj Liška · Jirko Malchárek · Ivan Mikloš · László Miklós · Robert Nemcsics · Vladimír Palko · Martin Pado · Pavol Prokopovič · Iveta Radičová · Pavol Rusko · Zsolt Simon · László Szigeti · Ivan Šimko · František Tóth · Rudolf Zajac · Lucia Žitňanská · Vladimír Chovan

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