Here are a few names you will be hearing a lot in the coming years: the most influential ministers in the new cabinet.
Robert Kalinak is the Minister for Defence. He has been Interior Minister three times.
The Finance Ministry will be led by Ladislav Kamenicky. A former businessman and entrepreneur, he has been an member of parliament since 2012.
Minister for Foreign Affairs is Juraj Blanar, He studied civil engineering Slovakia, Denmark and England. He has been a member of parliament since 2002, and worked on several committees dealing with foreign affairs.
The Justice Department will be headed by Boris Susko. He is a lawyer by training, a long-time party member, and was deputy minister for the environment in 2016-2020. In Parliament, he was a vocal critic of plans to reform the judiciary.
These are some of the ministers from the ranks of the Smer party, the largest in the coalition.
Ministers put forward by the second party, Hlas, are the following:
Matus Sutaj Estok, as Minister for Interior Affairs, will also be head of the police forces. He is a lawyer, who has worked in the departments of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry of Education.
Denisa Sakova (Economics Minister and also Deputy Prime Minister) worked for various large companies in the private sector before entering politics. She was Deputy Minister for the Interior and also briefly minister of that department from 2018 to 2020.
Zuzana Dolinkova, Minister for Health, used to be part of Dobrá voľba party, from June 2021 she is Hlas member. Dolinková has worked in the healthcare sector for more than 15 years. She has been active as a lawyer, particularly in the field of healthcare law and legislation. In recent years, she has been primarily involved in outpatient health care issues.
Tomas Drucker was the first to come out with a statement of intent, saying he will be a manager, not a revolutionary. The new Minister of Education has declared that he is not bringing any new reforms to education, but wants to continue the ones already in place. "I want to focus on good implementation of the reforms already in place," says Drucker.
Richard Raši, the new Investment Minister, studied medicine and was the Health Minister in two previous governments of Robert Fico. He dealt with investments as Deputy PM for Investments and Informatization in the cabinet of Peter Pellegrini. Raši used to be a mayor of Košice in eastern Slovakia.
The Labour Minister, Erik Tomas, was a reporter for TV Markíza before he became spokesperson for Robert Kaliňák. In 2016, he became head of communications for then PM Robert Fico.
Peter Kmec is deputy prime minister for the recovery plan, an important link to the European Union. He is a career diplomat who has served as ambassador to the USA.
The junior party in the coalition, SNS, has named two ministers: Tomas Taraba for the Environment, and Martina Simkovicova for Culture. The party is also set to supply the minister for a new sport and tourism ministry, which is expected to be established in January 2024.
Simkovicova was presenter at private TV station Markiza for a total of 18 years, lastly as anchor for the main evening news. In 2016 she became member of parliament for the We Are Family party. She switched soon after to another party.
Taraba became involved in politics in 2019, when he co-founded the party Christian Democracy - Life and Prosperity (KDŽP, today Life - National Party), in which he also served as chairman. Taraba worked in the parliamentary Committee for European Affairs and was also a member of the Committee for Economic Affairs.
For a complete and expanded overview of the new cabinet members, see this TASR page.
Source: TASR
