The Free Forum ( sk, Slobodné fórum, ; "Free" in the sense of "

freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

") was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, founded in 2004 by dissident parliamentarians from the

Slovak Democratic and Christian Union Slovak may refer to: * Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'') * Slovaks, a Western Slavic ethnic group * Slovak language, an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages * Slovak, Arka ...

(SDKÚ).

Zuzana Martináková Zuzana Martináková (born 5 May 1961 in Púchov, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak politician and a former journalist. She is the leader of the political party Free Forum. Life Martináková is a graduate of the Comenius University in Bratislava. S ...

is the leader of the party. The Free Forum was founded in January 2004 by

Ivan Šimko Ivan Šimko (born January 1, 1955, Bratislava) is Slovak politician and former defence minister. A founding member of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in 1990, Šimko left to co-found the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union in 2000. ...

and other

MPs. Two months later,

was elected party leader, and Šimko left later that year. In the 2006 parliamentary election, the party won 3.47% of the vote: falling short of the 5% threshold to join the Slovak Parliament. In the 2010 parliamentary election, the party formed part of

Union – Party for Slovakia Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, which won only 0.7% of the vote.

History

* 13 January 2004 –

and a group of MPs left the SDKÚ, after frictions with

Mikuláš Dzurinda Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1956) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic a ...

* 27 March 2004 – Zuzana Martináková was elected the party leader * October 2004 – Ivan Šimko left the party and founded a new political party named

Mission 21 Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

(Slovak: Misia 21) * 17 April 2009 – became an observer member of the

European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

(until 2011)

References

External links

Official site
Liberal parties in Slovakia {{Europe-liberal-party-stub