Ivan Šimko (born January 1, 1955, Bratislava) is Slovak politician and former defence minister. A founding member of the

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Slovakia, political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP ...

(KDH) in 1990, Šimko left to co-found 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 ...

in 2000. After a disagreement with Prime Minister

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 ...

, he led a group of MPs to form the

Free Forum The Free Forum ( sk, Slobodné fórum, ; "Free" in the sense of " freedom") was a political party in Slovakia, founded in 2004 by dissident parliamentarians from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ). Zuzana Martináková is the leade ...

in January 2004. He surprisingly lost the party's leadership election two months later to

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 ...

, and he left in October 2004 to form Mission 21 – New Christian Democracy. In May 2010, he returned to the Christian Democratic Movement.

References

1955 births Living people Politicians from Bratislava Defence Ministers of Slovakia Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1994-1998 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1998-2002 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2002-2006 {{Slovakia-politician-stub