Jirko Malchárek (born 28 June 1966 in

Jeseník Jeseník (; until 1947 Frývaldov (); , ) is a spa town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Jeseník consists of three municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 202 ...

) is a former Minister of Economy of Slovakia, former deputy prime minister of Slovakia and former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

Life and career

Malchárek was educated in technical field and graduated at the

Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU) () is the biggest and oldest university of technology in Slovakia. In the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities it was ranked in the first 150 in Computer Science, the only university in ...

. He was in the Slovak National Council from 1998 to 2006, initially for the

Party of Civic Understanding The Party of Civic Understanding (, SOP) was a centre-left political party in Slovakia between 1998 and 2003. Between 1998 and 2002 the party was part of the coalition government led by Mikuláš Dzurinda, with the founder of the party, Rudolf Schu ...

(Strana občianskeho porozumenia) and from 2002 as a member of the

Alliance of the New Citizen The Alliance of the New Citizen (, ANO) was a liberal political party in Slovakia existing from 2001 to 2011. The acronym was a pun on ''áno'', Slovak for "yes". It was founded and led by media entrepreneur Pavol Rusko. The party positioned itse ...

, of which he is a founding member. In September 2005 he abandoned Alliance of the New Citizen and became a member of Nádej (English: Hope), which did not get into parliament in the 2006 elections. He is interested in automobile racing and raced for 11 years, including occasional forays into international racing, such as the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

, and in 2002 he was a test driver of

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal following ...

. He is a co-founder of BECEP, organization dedicated to safety of automobile traffic.LEADERS.sk
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References

External links

* http://www.government.gov.sk/english/minister_mh.html (page about current minister, archived version about Jirko Malchárek

* http://www.leaders.sk/index.php?id=788&lang=en 1966 births Living people People from Jeseník Deputy prime ministers of Slovakia Economy ministers of Slovakia Government ministers of Slovakia Hope (political party) politicians Idea (political party) politicians 24 Hours of Spa drivers Slovak racing drivers Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava alumni ISR Racing drivers FIA GT Championship drivers W Racing Team drivers {{Autoracing-bio-stub