Andrej Danko (born 12 August 1974) is a Slovak politician who has been

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

of the

National Council of the Slovak Republic The National Council of the Slovak Republic ( sk, Národná rada Slovenskej republiky), abbreviated to ''NR SR'', is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under ...

from 2016 to 2020 and Chairman of the

Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party ( sk, Slovenská národná strana, SNS) is a nationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and the European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won ...

since 2012.

Biography

Born in

Revúca Revúca (; formerly ''Veľká Revúca'' in Slovak; german: Groß-Rauschenbach; hu, Nagyrőce) is a town in Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia. Revúca is the seat of Revúca District. Etymology The name is of Slovak origin and was initially t ...

, Danko studied at the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

. After compulsory military service, he founded several commercial companies and worked as an independent lawyer. During 2006–2010, he was an assistant in the National Council of Slovakia and a member of several parliamentary commissions. He became the first vice-president of the

in 2010. In 2012, he became the chairman of the party after getting support from many of the party's members, succeeding

Ján Slota Ján Slota (born 14 September 1953) is the co-founder and former president of the Slovak National Party, On 23 March 2016 Danko was elected Speaker of the National Council. In 2016, Danko called for the Burka to be Banned in Slovakia.

Controversies

Promotion to the rank of Captain in Reserve

In September 2016, while in his position as the Speaker of the Parliament, Danko was promoted by eight ranks (from OR-4 to O-2), to Captain in Reserve of the Slovak Army, by his friend

Peter Gajdoš Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, the Minister of Defense. The promotion was viewed by some in the media, general and internet public as a sign of corrupt government. This is because a single promotion by eight ranks has never happened in the history of

Slovak Army The Slovak Ground Forces, also known as the Slovak Army, is the land specialized service branch of the Slovak Armed Forces. Structure Ground Forces Command * Ground Forces Command, in Trenčín (Commander: 2 Star General) ** Command Supp ...

, not at all to a person who has only joined mandatory national service for the period of one year. On April 29, 2020, Minister of Defence

Jaroslav Naď Jaroslav Naď (born 21 March 1981, Nitra, Czecho-Slovakia) is a Slovak politician, who has served as Minister of Defence since March 2020, as a nominee of OĽaNO. He specialises in national security issues. He previously worked with Globsec. ...

canceled his rank.

Plagiarism allegations

In 2018, Danko was accused of plagiarism of his doctoral

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

at University of Matej Bel in 2000. When media showed interest in his thesis, he asked the university to ban public access to it. Following public pressure, Danko removed the ban after one month and the university library allowed the public to see the thesis, but not to take pictures of it. In November 2018 the university set up a commission to review his thesis. According to the conclusion published by the commission in January 2019, the rigorous procedure met valid regulations, but the thesis contains parts that only slightly differ from original sources, the most of the thesis is the same to a large extent and it preserves also the structure of sources without proper citation or paraphrasing.

2019 Presidential Inauguration

In 2019, Danko presided over the ceremonial assembly of the

on the occasion of presidential inauguration of Zuzana Čaputová in the

Slovak Philharmonic The Slovak Philharmonic or Slovak State Philharmonic (Slovenská filharmónia) is a Slovak symphony orchestra based in Bratislava. Founded in 1949, the orchestra has resided since the 1950s in the Baroque era Reduta Bratislava concert hall constr ...

, and delivered an unscheduled speech to address the participants. This caused a breach of a protocol which states that duties of the outgoing president cease at 12.00 GMT+1 and the elect takes office. Slovak laws state that in an event of vacant presidential seat, some competences of the president are passed to the Speaker of the National Council and to the Government of the Slovak republic. Zuzana Čaputová was sworn in at 12.07, so there were some polemics concerning who was the president for the seven-minute term. Some people (including the ''Office of the National Council'' and

Peter Kubina Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, law consultant of

Zuzana Čaputová Zuzana Čaputová, (; Strapáková; born 21 June 1973) is a Slovak politician, lawyer and environmental activist. She is the fifth president of Slovakia, a position she has held since 15 June 2019. Čaputová is the first woman to hold the presi ...

) said that the president was still

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 ...

, but some other people (e. g. the protocolist

Ladislav Špaček Ladislav is a Czech, Slovak and Croatian variant of the Slavic name Vladislav. The female form of this name is Ladislava. Folk etymology occasionally links ''Ladislav'' with the Slavic goddess Lada. Spellings and variations In Bulgarian a ...

) said that there was no president. Other people thought that Andrej Danko and

Peter Pellegrini Peter Pellegrini (; born 6 October 1975) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Health from December 2019 to March 2020. He previously served as deputy prime minister (2016–2018) an ...

, the prime minister, were carrying out presidential competences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danko, Andrej 1974 births Living people Comenius University alumni Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2016-2020 People from Revúca Slovak National Party politicians Speakers of the National Council (Slovakia) People involved in plagiarism controversies