Štefan Harabin (born 4 May 1957) is a former Slovak

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

and politician. He served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Slovakia for two terms (1998–2003 and 2009–2014) and Minister of Justice from 2006 to 2009. In 2019 he ran unsuccessfully for President of Slovakia.

Judicial and political career

Harabin graduated from the Faculty of Law,

Pavol Jozef Šafárik University Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice ( Slovak ''Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach'') is a university located in Košice, Slovakia. It was founded in 1959 and is organized into five faculties. The university is named after P ...

Košice. He started his judicial career as a probationary judge at the

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...

regional court in 1980. Three years later, he became a professional judge at the

Poprad Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the ten ...

district court. Harabin was a member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Cominte ...

until the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

of 1989. After the revolution, he continued to practice as a judge at the Košice regional court, until he was elected to the

Supreme Court of Slovakia The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic is the highest juridical authority in the Slovakia and is based in Bratislava. It was established on 1 January 1993, following the division of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. ...

in 1991. From 1998 to 2003, he was the chief justice of the Supreme Court and, in addition, president of the Judicial Council of Slovakia created in 2001. He served as

minister of justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

and deputy prime minister in

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) p ...

's first cabinet from 4 July 2006 to 23 June 2009. He was nominated by the right-wing

People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia Former headquarters of the ĽS-HZDS political party at Tomášikova Street 32/A in Bratislava The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia ( sk, Hnutie za demokratické Slovensko, HZDS) was a national-populist political party in Slovakia. The party ...

(ĽS-HZDS), but was not formally a member of that party. Subsequently, he returned to his post of chief justice, serving until June 2014.

2019 Slovak presidential campaign

Harabin ran as a non-partisan candidate in the

2019 Slovak presidential election Presidential elections were held in Slovakia in March 2019. Incumbent President Andrej Kiska did not run for a second term. Fifteen candidates contested the first round on 16 March, of which two later formally withdrew their bids before voting to ...

. While nominally independent, he was endorsed by the extraparliamentary ''Christian Democracy – Life and Prosperity'' party. He ran on a platform of "traditional Slovak culture based on Christianity and family, formed by a man–father and woman–mother" and rejecting "

gender ideology The anti-gender movement is an international movement which opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology", " gender theory" or "genderism". The concepts cover a variety of issues and have no coherent definition. Members of the anti-gender mov ...

". During the campaign he accused Muslim migrants of "killing and raping European women in Germany and France" and claimed his opponents wanted to destroy Slovak culture. He also condemned

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

institutions as well as homosexuals. According to Globsec, Harabin was the most favoured candidate by "pro-Kremlin disinformation channels" on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, receiving 174 positive and no negative posts. Harabin finished third, winning 14.3% of votes.

References

External links

*http://www.sme.sk/c/4877475/harabin-hrozi-vydavatelom.html *http://tvnoviny.sk/spravy/domace/sudcovia-ziadaju-aby-us-zrusil-volbu-harabina.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Harabin, Stefan 1957 births Living people People from Kežmarok District People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia politicians Justice ministers of Slovakia Candidates for President of Slovakia Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Slovak judges