Who are the new Slovak MEPs?

Slovakia will have its first Roma MEP.

EP election in SlovakiaEP election in Slovakia (Source: TASR)

Slovaks elected 14 MEPs during the May 25 European Parliament elections.

The winner of the elections, the coalition of Progressive Slovakia and Spolu (Together), will be represented by four MEPs, while Smer will have three representatives. The far-right People’s Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) will have two each, and the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) one.

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Progressive Slovakia and Spolu

Michal Šimečka

  • Number of preferential votes: 81,735

A deputy chair of Progressive Slovakia. Before he joined the party, he worked as a research worker of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, with a focus on European integration and European safety. At the same time, he worked as an advisor to the Czech foreign affairs minister. Before that, he worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and in the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) think tank. He started as a journalist for the Sme daily and the Financial Times.

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Vladimír Bilčík

  • Number of preferential votes: 26,202

A political analyst and member of Spolu’s presidium. He works at the Department of Political Science at Comenius University in Bratislava and is a member of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA). In the past, he used to work as an advisor to the Slovak government’s representative for the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002-2003).

Martin Hojsík

  • Number of preferential votes: 27,549

Programme director and member of the board of the international volunteering charity, where he is responsible for the identification, definition and implementation of the strategy and the programme goals across the globe. In the past, he worked on various global campaigns focused on corporation and public policies for Action Aid, Greenpeace International, as well as communication campaigns for Greenpeace national offices. He has been active in environmental issues and various social movements since 1993.

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Michal Wiezik

  • Number of preferential votes: 29,998
Read also: EP election in Slovakia: Official results confirm the victory of pro-EU forces Read more 

Scientist, university teacher and ecologist. He works at the Technical University of Zvolen, focusing on ecology and environmental science.

Smer

Monika Beňová

  • Number of preferential votes: 89,472

One of the founding members of the Smer party. In the years 1999-2001, she served as the party’s general manager. She was first elected MEP in 2004 and has been in the post since then.

Miroslav Číž

  • Number of preferential votes: 51,362

Member of Smer. He was first elected MP in 2002 and has been in the post since then. He has been holding various functions in the parliament. He has been a member of the parliamentary conflict of interests committee, the parliamentary culture and media committee, and the permanent delegation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union since 2016. Číž is one of the authors of the controversial Press Code amendment, reintroducing the right of reply for politicians.

Robert Hajšel

  • Number of preferential votes: 13,773

Former head of the EP Office in Slovakia, which he had been leading since 2005. Before that, he used to work as a journalist for various media, reporting from Brussels.

ĽSNS

Milan Uhrík

  • Number of preferential votes: 42,779

MP since the 2016 general election. Before that, he worked as head of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region’s office between the years 2015 and 2017. He worked in various professions before working for public administration as a university teacher, manager and IT developer.

Miroslav Radačovský

  • Number of preferential votes: 42,276

Former judge. He is known for the court dispute that involved President Andrej Kiska and Ján Franc regarding a plot of land in Veľký Slavkov near the High Tatras. He, among other things, verbally attacked Kiska, recommending he consider resigning and leaving the country.

KDH

Ivan Štefanec

Read also: EP election: Preliminary results show pro-EU forces prevail Read more 
  • Number of preferential votes: 33,128

Slovak MEP since 2014. He started working for the Slovak government in 2004, first as the manager of the committee for the restoration and development of the High Tatras, and later as the government’s proxy for the introduction of the euro. He was a member of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) between the years 2006 and 2015, and was elected MP in 2006, focusing on economic and European affairs. He left the party in 2015 and in the same year, became a member of KDH.

Miriam Lexmann (will take the post only after the UK leaves the EU)

  • Number of preferential votes: 27,833

Expert in foreign policy in KDH. She is a former diplomat, with experience working in the Council of Europe and the EU institutions.

SaS

Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová

  • Number of preferential votes: 52,331

MP for SaS and current deputy speaker of parliament. She worked as a journalist and became active in politics after the 2010 general election. During the Iveta Radičová government, she worked as the state secretary of the Labour Ministry.

Eugen Jurzyca

  • Number of preferential votes: 33,540

MP for SaS since summer 2014 and the party’s teamleader for public finances. He served as the education minister during the Iveta Radičová government (2010-2012). Before that, he helped found various think tanks, including CPHR, INEKO, Transparency International Slovakia and the Business Alliance of Slovakia. He served as INEKO head, was a member of the National Bank of Slovakia’s bank council, and served as deputy chair of the Antimonopoly Office. He also has the Ľudovít Štúr Order 2nd class and the Crystal Wing laureate.

OĽaNO

Peter Pollák

  • Number of preferential votes: 23,815

He was elected the first Roma MP in 2012, running on the OĽaNO slate. He became the government’s proxy for Roma communities, serving in the post until 2016.

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