Ľubomír Petrák (source: TASR)
Ľubomír Petrák, a Smer MP and mayor of the village Hurbanova Ves, died at the age of 59. His colleague at Smer Dušan Jarjabek and the Smer party confirmed the news on Facebook. Several politicians suggested he died of coronavirus, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Smer Chair Robert Fico had reported earlier that Petrák’s health condition was critical. He said that Petrák underwent serious surgery.
Petrák was a member of the chairmanship of the party and deputy chair of the education committee in parliament.
Reactions of politicians
Fico wrote that everyone who knew Ľubomír Petrák must grieve over his loss. He said that with Petrák's passing, he lost not only a political colleague but also a personal friend.Fico wrote that everyone who knew Ľubomír Petrák must grieve over his loss. He said that with Petrák's passing, he lost not only a political colleague but also a personal friend.
“Ľubo, rest in peace,” Fico wrote on Facebook.
Peter Pellegrini, former Smer member and chair of Hlas said that the pandemic impacts the whole nation with its tragic consequences and it is our obligation to do everything to conquer it.
President Zuzana Čaputová knew MP Petrák personally. She appreciated his positive attitude and manners.
“He gained the respect of political opponents with his work too,” she wrote in a statement. “Condolences to his family and bereaved people.”
PM Igor Matovič wrote on Facebook that he liked Ľubomír Petrák.
“I considered him de facto as an error in Smer and I told him several times,” Matovič noted. “A killer that his colleagues without masks on the squares on November 17 doubted took his life. Rest in peace.”
Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár also expressed his condolences.
“I would like to thank him for the work he did as a long-term MP and former chair of the committee for education, science, youth and sport,” Kollár wrote. “He was an extraordinary person, an expert who unfortunately became another victim of the insidious disease. I think I can speak on behalf of all colleagues-MPs that we will miss him not only on the expert side but also as a person.”
Who was Ľubomír Petrák?
He was born on August 6, 1961, in Myjava. He entered active politics at the beginning of the 1990s. He was a member and later chair of the Party of Democratic Left (SDĽ). He served as mayor of the village Hurbanova Ves starting in 1992.
After SDĽ merged with Smer in 2004, he entered the party of Robert Fico and ran in the parliamentary election for this party in 2006. He became a Smer MP in parliament and was reelected in 2020.
