Miroslav Číž (11 February 1954 – 29 December 2022) was a Slovak politician who served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

until his death in 2022. Číž was born in

Banská Štiavnica Banská Štiavnica (; ; , ) is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as the Štiavnica Mountains. Banská Štiavnica has a population of ...

. He studied Law at the

Comenius University Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

, graduating in 1978. He later taught at the university. During

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, he served as a high-ranking official of the National Committees of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

. After the fall of the regime, he remained in the

Communist Party of Slovakia The Communist Party of Slovakia (, KSS) is a communist party in Slovakia, formed in 1992 through the merger of the Communist Party of Slovakia – 91 and the Communist League of Slovakia. The party is observer of the Party of the European Lef ...

, which was later renamed the Party of the Democratic Left. In the 1990s, he held several official positions in the

National Council of Slovakia The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, 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 proportional representation with seats dis ...

. In 1999, he was in the group of members of the Democratic Left, led by

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 ...

, who left the party and founded the

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party. Thus, since 2002 he has been a member of the National Council and from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2016 he was its Deputy Speaker. Číž died on 29 December 2022, at the age of 68. His seat was taken by

Katarína Roth Neveďalová Katarína Roth Neveďalová (born 10 November 1982) is a Slovak politician from Direction – Slovak Social Democracy. Between 2009 and 2014 she was a Member of the European Parliament, where she was a member of the Progressive Alliance of Soc ...

Chicken leg incident

The incident regarding chicken legs happened on 18 June 2019, in the canteen of the

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

. The canteen has a menu consisting of various meals, from which MPs can choose. After voting in the parliament, at approximately 2 pm Číž asked the serving cook for a chicken leg from the menu. The cook told him that the canteen was out of chicken legs and offered him to choose from among the rest of the available meals. According to another MP that was around at that moment,

Oto Žarnay Oto Žarnay (born 18 March 1969 in Košice) is a Slovak teacher, anticorruption activist and politician. Between 2016 and 2020, he served as an MP of the National Council, elected on the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities list. In F ...

, Číž started yelling at the cook for not having chicken legs. After a while he asked for the chef of the canteen. Číž then yelled at him as well and finally threatened the chef that he would make sure he gets fired. "He shouted that it was outrageous and in 30 years he had not experienced such a thing that they do not have the food he chose in the parliamentary canteen. The cook, tried to explain to him in a decent way that she had other dishes to choose from, which he vehemently refused and wanted a chicken leg. He also said that she should be ashamed that they no longer had the chicken leg, and let her apologize to him."says Žarnay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciz, Miroslav 1954 births 2022 deaths MEPs for Slovakia 2019–2024 Direction – Social Democracy MEPs Direction – Social Democracy politicians Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2002-2006 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2006-2010 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2010-2012 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2012–2016 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 2016–2020 People from Banská Štiavnica Party of the Democratic Left (Slovakia) politicians Academic staff of Comenius University Comenius University alumni