Writer and former Slovak ambassador to the Czech Republic Ladislav Ballek died on Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Ballek's family have told TASR. The family said that the date of the funeral will be announced later.
Born in Terany (Banská Bystrica region) on April 2, 1941, Ballek studied Slovak history and art education at the Faculty of Education in Banská Bystrica. He briefly worked as a teacher, before assuming the job of an editor in Slovak Radio and later that of an editor of newspaper Sme. He served as the first secretary of the Slovak Writers' Union since 1984 until the union was dissolved in 1989. He became active in politics in the early 1990s, representing his Party of the Democratic Left (SDL) as a member of Slovak Parliament. He served as ambassador to the Czech Republic between 2001 and 2008. Ladislav Ballek was 73.
