Lucia Žitňanská (born 3 June 1964) is a Slovak politician and member of Most–Híd. She served as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

in the third government of

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who has served as the prime minister of Slovakia since 2023. He previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He founded the left-wing political party D ...

from 2016 to 2018. In 2006 she served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Justice of

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

and in 2010 until 2012 she again served as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of

Iveta Radičová Iveta Radičová (; ; born 7 December 1956) is a Slovak sociologist and former politician who served as prime minister of Slovakia from 2010 to 2012. The first woman to hold the position, Radičová led a Radičová's Cabinet, coalition governme ...

Legal career

In January 2013, the law firm TaylorWessing e/n/w/c announced to the lawyers that Žitňanská had become its "new reinforcement", wanting to renew her lawyer's license. Since June 2013, she has been named on the list of arbitrators of the Vienna Arbitration Court.

Political career

2012 Slovak parliamentary election

In the

2012 Slovak parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 10 March 2012 to elect the 150 members of the National Council. The elections followed the fall of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party-led ...

, Žitňanská received almost four times as many votes (103,517), thus ahead of the SDKÚ-DS chairman

Mikuláš Dzurinda Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1955) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. Dzurinda is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democr ...

and vice-chairman

Ivan Mikloš Ivan Mikloš (born 2 June 1960) is a Slovak politician who served as Minister of Finance of Slovakia from 2002 to 2006, and Deputy Prime Minister for Economy between 1998 and 2002. Biography Mikloš became the only opposition member of the Supe ...

, the latter of whom received 56,771 preferential votes. A few days after the elections, Dzurinda announced that he would not apply for a position in the party's presidency and expressed his support for the presidential candidacy of Žitňanská, whom he entrusted to represent the party at the congress. At the SDKÚ-DS congress on 19 May 2012, she was unsuccessful in the 2014 Slovak presidential election when

Pavol Frešo Pavol Frešo (born 21 April 1969) is a Slovak former politician who was the last chairman of SDKÚ-DS, Governor of the Bratislava Region, and an MP of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. Life Frešo was born on 21 April 1969 in Bra ...

defeated her in the second round. On 27 November, Žitňanská replaced

Ľudovít Kaník Ľudovít Kaník (born 1 September 1965 in Hnúšťa) is a Slovakia, Slovak politician and member of the Democratic Party (Slovakia, 1989), Democratic Party of Slovakia. He also led Slovak Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic), Civic Democratic ...

as chairman of the SDKÚ parliamentary club. On 12 December 2013, she resigned from SDKÚ-DS with Miroslav Beblavý and

Magdaléna Vášáryová Magdaléna Vášáryová (; referred also as Magda Vášáryová ; born 26 August 1948) is a Slovakia, Slovak actress and diplomat, prominent for her liberal anti-nationalist stances. Life Vášáryová was born in 1948. In 1971, she complete ...

Minister of Justice

On 8 April 2014, Most–Híd presidency confirmed that Žitňanská, who was an independent politician, would become a member of the party. She promised to hold the position of vice-president, but changed her mind and was not interested.

2016–2018: Slovak parliamentary election and departure from politics

After placing second in Most–Híd candidate list during the

2016 Slovak parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia on 5 March 2016 to elect the 150 members of the National Council. The ruling left-wing populist Direction – Social Democracy (Smer) party remained the strongest party, but lost its majority. The ...

, Žitňanská was appointed Minister of Justice by 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 politician, independent candidate in the 2014 Slova ...

. She became chairperson of the Legislative Council of the Slovak Government on 11 May. In June 2017, Žitňanská criticised the candidacy of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Monika Jankovská, to the Judicial Council. On 14 March 2018, Žitňanská decided not to continue in the new Cabinet of Peter Pellegrini, citing her inability to find the necessary compromises with the coalition partners. She also resigned from Most-Híd the same year on 20 September.

References

External links

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Zitnanska, Lucia 1964 births Deputy prime ministers of Slovakia Justice ministers of Slovakia Living people Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2006-2010 Politicians from Bratislava 21st-century Slovak women politicians Most–Híd politicians Women government ministers of Slovakia Female justice ministers Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2012–2016 Women members of the National Council (Slovakia)