Jaroslav Naď (born 21 March 1981,

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth la ...

, Czecho-Slovakia) is a Slovak politician, who has served as

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...

since March 2020, as a nominee of OĽaNO. He specialises in national security issues. He previously worked with Globsec.

Early life

Jaroslav Naď graduated in Political Science at the

Matej Bel University Matej Bel University (commonly referred as Matej Bel or UMB), ( sk, Univerzita Mateja Bela) is a public research university in the central Slovak town of Banská Bystrica. The university was established in 1992. It bears the name of Matthias B ...

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mo ...

in 2007 and received further training at the

European Security and Defence College The European Security and Defence College (ESDC) is an EU body embedded in the External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union (EU) that provides training and education at EU level in the field of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Between 2004 and 2011, Naď worked in various role at the Slovak Ministry of Defense. Later, he was active as a diplomat at the

NATO headquarters The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is headquartered in a complex in Haren, part of the City of Brussels municipality of Belgium. The staff at the headquarters is composed of national delegations of NATO member states and includes civ ...

and with Slovak security think tanks GLOBSEC and the Slovak Security Institute. In 2018, he obtained his PhD from the

Armed Forces Academy of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik The Armed Forces Academy of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik, located in Liptovský Mikuláš, is Slovakia's only Military academy. It was originally established in 1945, right after the end of World War II, first as a High School and from 197 ...

Political career

In 2000, he shortly joined the

Direction – Slovak Social Democracy Direction – Slovak Social Democracy ( sk, Smer – slovenská sociálna demokracia, SMER–SSD), formerly and legally called Direction – Social Democracy ( sk, Smer – sociálna demokracia, SMER–SD), is a left-wing populist political par ...

party. In 2018, he became a member of

Ordinary People and Independent Personalities Ordinary People and Independent Personalities) ( sk, Obyčajní ľudia a nezávislé osobnosti) is a conservative political party in Slovakia. The anti-establishment party founded in 2011 won the 2020 parliamentary election on an anti-corrupt ...

(OĽANO), on which list he ran in the

2020 Slovak parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 29 February 2020 to elect all 150 members of the National Council. The anti-corruption list led by Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) movement emerged as the largest parliame ...

. After the electoral victory of OĽANO, Naď became the minister of defense.

Controversy

Allegations of nepotism

Naď was linked with accusations of

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

, when his partner Barbora Túrosová was assigned as the spokeswoman of the

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. She denied the allegations, referring to her long-term journalism career in TA3. Naď was previously linked with nepotism back in 2014, when his brother René was appointed as the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to

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 ...

, while Naď was one of the officers at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. No verdicts were declared in either of the cases.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nad, Jaroslav 1981 births Living people Politicians from Nitra Slovak diplomats 21st-century Slovak politicians Defence Ministers of Slovakia OĽaNO politicians Matej Bel University alumni