Pavol Paška (23 February 1958,

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

– 6 April 2018, Košice) was a Slovak politician who served as Speaker of the

National Council of the Slovak Republic 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 ...

from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2014. He was a member of the

Direction – Social Democracy Direction – Social Democracy (, Smer–SD), also commonly referred to as Smer, is a left-wing nationalism, left-wing nationalist and left-wing populism, left-wing populist political party in Slovakia led by the incumbent Prime Minister of Slov ...

(Smer-SD) party.

Early life and education

Paška was born in

on 23 February 1958. He graduated from the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

of 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 ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

in 1985. His study fields included Marxist–Leninist philosophy and aesthetics. Prior to his university studies he worked for the State Company Zdroj in Košice. After finishing his study he worked at Education and Culture Centre in Košice and at Self-Administration Office and later Municipal District Administration KVP in Košice. Paška became active in the business sphere in 1992 before entering politics in 1999.

Political career

Paška was first elected as the deputy leader of Smer-SD, along with future minister of the interior Robert Kaliňák, at their annual congress in the western Slovak town of

Hlohovec Hlohovec (, Hungarian ''Galgóc''), is a town in southwestern Slovakia, with a population of 21,508. Name The name comes from ''*Glogovec'', the Old Slavic name for a place densely overgrown by hawthorn. The Hungarian form ''Galgóc'' was ado ...

on 12 April 2003. He was re-elected as deputy chairman at the party's national congress in Trenčín on 30 September.

Speaker of Parliament

His party, Direction – Social Democracy, 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 ...

, won the June 2006 parliamentary elections with 29.1% of the votes and formed a coalition with the

People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

(ĽS-HZDS) and the

Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party (, SNS) is an ultranationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won seats in every Slovak pa ...

(SNS). Support for Direction – Social Democracy party after the elections rose even higher, oscillating in the summer 2007 opinion polls around 40%. In the wake of the election, the new Slovak parliament elected Paška as its new speaker, with 98 out of 148 MPs present supporting the nomination. Parliament also elected three deputy speakers - Miroslav Číž from Smer-SD, Anna Belousovová from the SNS party and Viliam Veteška from the HZDS. Paška said he "wanted consensus, cooperation, and respect to dominate in the new parliament". One of his first actions as speaker of parliament was to make parliamentary sessions public through live broadcasts on the public service Slovak Television (STV) channel, to "prevent information about parliamentary sessions being manipulated." In 2007 Paška stated he would introduce a proposal for the complete cancellation of ministers of parliament's immunity, claiming it represented "an abuse of power". In November 2007, Paska faced a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

in parliament. The opposition parties wanted Paška to be fired for his handling of a controversial law. The opposition took issue with Paska's interference in the amendment to the social insurance law, approved by the parliament in a chaotic vote with two contradictory amending proposals. The draft bill was supposed to be published on the internet within three days after the vote. Paška admitted that he ordered the legislative department to ignore parliament's vote and publish a version that did not the original proposal. Katarína Kližanová Rýsová, spokesperson from the Smer-SD party called the motion to dismiss Paska "ridiculous". On 27 November Paska survived the motion. Out of 111 MPs present in 150-member parliament, 59 supported the motion. The opposition would have needed 76 votes to succeed in its attempt to oust the Speaker of Parliament.

Life outside politics

Paška was married and had two

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

s, Michal and Matus. In November 2015 his nephews Martin Paška, the director at Bytový podnik mesta Košice (BPMK) the city housing management company in Košice; his brother Branislav, an employee at Košice

University Hospital A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...

and their third brother Maroš, a police officer, attended a birthday party. After returning from the party, they first harassed and then brutally attacked a woman and her partner in front of the pizza restaurant. After the video of the attack leaked to the public, Martin Paška, Branislav Paška and Maroš Paška have lost their respective jobs in public sector. After claiming they were innocent, they were sentenced in 2019 to financial penalty and probation for six months. He was a member of

Prague Society for International Cooperation The Prague Society for International Cooperation is a Prague-based non-governmental organization that originated in Communist Central Europe, when political dissidents joined forces to oppose their respective regimes. Several of its members were ...

, a respected NGO whose main goals are networking and the development of a new generation of responsible, well-informed leaders and thinkers and a Member of the Advisory Board of th
Global Panel Foundation
- America.

References

External links

Paška's page on the Homepage of the National Council

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paska, Pavol 1958 births 2018 deaths Politicians from Košice Direction – Social Democracy politicians Speakers of the National Council (Slovakia) 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 Comenius University alumni