Juraj Šeliga (born 16 August 1990) is a Slovak politician, activist and lawyer. He served as a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the National Council from 2020 until 2023, as well as Deputy Speaker of the council between 2020 and 2021.

Early life

Born 16 August 1990

Dolný Kubín Dolný Kubín (; also known by other names) is a town in northern Slovakia in the Žilina Region. It is the historical capital and the largest settlement of the Orava region. Names The name is derived from the archaic Slovak word meaning a "gla ...

, Šeliga studied law at the

University of Trnava The University of Trnava (in Trnava) ( sk, Trnavská univerzita v Trnave) is one of the oldest universities in Slovakia. It is based in Trnava, in the west of Slovakia. Historical university The original Jesuit university was founded in 1635 by ...

, where he obtained a PhD degree. As a student, Šeliga worked as an aide to the MP Pavel Abrhan.

Activism

Šeliga worked with the NGO Via Juris to improve the functioning of judiciary in Slovakia. In 2017, he founded the civic initiative ''Remember'' ( sk, Pamätaj) to oppose the weakening of the National Memory Institute and promote the study of crimes of totalitarian regime. Following the

murder of Ján Kuciak Ján Kuciak (17 May 1990 – 21 February 2018) was a Slovak investigative journalist. Kuciak worked as a reporter for the news website Aktuality.sk, focused mainly on investigating tax fraud of several businessmen with connections to top-level Slo ...

, Šeliga was one of the main organizers of massive anti-government protests where he refused any political ambitions in the future.

Political career

In June 2019, Šeliga was one of the co-founders of For the People led by the president

Andrej Kiska Andrej Kiska (; born 2 February 1963) is a Slovak politician, entrepreneur, writer and philanthropist who served as the fourth president of Slovakia from 2014 to 2019. He ran as an independent candidate in the 2014 presidential election in whic ...

, serving as deputy chairman until March 2023. He became deputy speaker 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 ...

. In May 2021, Šeliga resigned as Deputy Speakership after pictures of him, his fellow MP Jana Žitňanská, and the governor of the Bratislava region

Juraj Droba Juraj Droba (born 25 May 1971 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak politician and businessman serving since 2017 as Governor of Bratislava region since 4 December 2017. Between 2010 and 2018, he was an MP in the National Council of Slovaki ...

spending time together in a restaurant that should have been deleted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

were published by the tabloid press. Šeliga faced particular criticism of his conduct because he had been a staunch defender of the anti-pandemic policies of the government. In March 2023, Šeliga and Žitňanská left the For the People, later joining Democrats party by

Eduard Heger Eduard Heger (; born 3 May 1976) is a Slovak politician, serving as Prime Minister of Slovakia since 1 April 2021. He previously served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Igor Matovič. Heger is a member of the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seliga, Juraj 1990 births Living people Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2020–2023 People from Dolný Kubín For the People (Slovakia) politicians