Igor Matovič facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Igor Matovič
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Matovič in 2020
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| Prime Minister of Slovakia | |
| In office 21 March 2020 – 1 April 2021 |
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| President | Zuzana Čaputová |
| Deputy |
See list
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| Preceded by | Peter Pellegrini |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Heger |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia | |
| In office 1 April 2021 – 23 December 2022 Serving with Štefan Holý, Veronika Remišová, and Richard Sulík
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| Prime Minister | Eduard Heger |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 1 April 2021 – 23 December 2022 |
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| Prime Minister | Eduard Heger |
| Preceded by | Eduard Heger |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Heger |
| Member of the National Council | |
| Assumed office 23 December 2022 |
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| In office 8 July 2010 – 21 March 2020 |
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| Leader of Slovensko | |
| Assumed office 28 October 2011 |
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| Preceded by | Office established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 May 1973 Trnava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) |
| Political party | Slovakia (since 2011) |
| Other political affiliations |
Independent (2010–2011) |
| Spouse |
Pavlína Matovičová
(m. 1999) |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Alma mater | Comenius University (Mgr.) |
Igor Matovič was born on May 11, 1973. He is a Slovak politician and used to be a businessman. He served as the Prime Minister of Slovakia from March 2020 to March 2021. After that, he became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance from April 2021 to December 2022.
Igor Matovič was born in Trnava, a city in Slovakia. He studied at Comenius University and then started a business in publishing. He was first elected to the National Council, which is like Slovakia's parliament, in 2010.
In 2011, he started a political movement called "Ordinary People." This group focused on fighting against corruption. Matovič is known for using creative ways to show problems with corruption, especially about special benefits for politicians and bribery.
In the 2020 election, his party won enough votes to form a government with three other parties. He became Prime Minister on March 21, 2020. He later resigned on April 1, 2021, and then became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
Contents
Early Life and Business
Igor Matovič was born in Trnava on May 11, 1973. In 1993, he began studying at the Faculty of Management at Comenius University. He finished his studies in 1998. In 2021, Matovič admitted that parts of his final university paper were copied from other sources.
He started his own business in 1997. From 2002 to 2010, he was the main leader of a local company that published media. Later, he gave control of his businesses to his wife, Pavlína. People have described him as a unique and sometimes unpredictable politician who is good at using the media.
Political Journey
In 2010, Matovič created a group called "Ordinary People" (Obyčajní ľudia). This group was generally in the center-right of politics and strongly focused on fighting corruption. Matovič promoted his group by giving out free flyers from his family's printing company.
He and three other members of OĽaNO (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities) were first elected in the 2010 Slovak parliamentary election. They were part of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party list. In 2011, he disagreed with the government on a certain issue, which led to his group leaving the coalition.
After the government fell apart in 2011, new elections were held in 2012. Matovič led "Ordinary People" to become an independent political party called OĽaNO. In these elections, OĽaNO won 8.55% of the votes and 16 seats in parliament. He chose to stay in the opposition, meaning he did not join the government, because he did not want to work with the Smer party.
As the leader of OĽaNO, Matovič became well-known for his fight against corruption. For example, to protest special benefits for politicians, he once parked his car on a pedestrian crossing and showed his parliamentary pass to the police. To show he had never taken bribes, he even took a polygraph (lie detector) test.
Becoming Prime Minister
Matovič's party, OĽaNO, won the most votes in the 2020 Slovak parliamentary election on February 29, 2020. They won 53 out of 150 seats in the National Council. Fighting corruption was a big topic in this election, which helped Matovič because he had always been an anti-corruption activist.
On March 13, Matovič announced that he had agreed to form a government with three other parties: We Are Family, Freedom and Solidarity, and For the People. On March 16, he presented his choices for the new government to President Zuzana Čaputová, who approved them. The new government was officially sworn in on March 21.
A sociologist named Michal Vašečka noted that Matovič seemed to turn public anger into a "class war." This meant it felt like a conflict between people from cities and the countryside, or between educated and uneducated people, or common people versus the rich. This led to more strong disagreements in politics.
University Paper Controversy
In July 2020, Matovič admitted that he had copied parts of his master's thesis (his final university paper). This happened after a newspaper called Denník N found that whole pages and charts were taken from other sources. He said he would step down from his position after he had fulfilled all his promises from the election. Comenius University in Bratislava later confirmed that his master's thesis had been plagiarized.
Government Challenges and Resignation
In March 2021, a member of parliament named Tomáš Valášek left the government coalition. This happened because of a disagreement over the purchase and arrival of the first 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. Matovič and the Minister of Health had welcomed these vaccines at the airport.
After weeks of discussions during this government crisis, Matovič resigned as Prime Minister on March 30, 2021. A new government was then formed, and the former Minister of Finance, Eduard Heger, became the new Prime Minister. Because of the plagiarism issue and the government crisis, Matovič's public approval rating dropped significantly.
Minister of Finance Role
After the government crisis and his resignation as Prime Minister, Matovič was appointed as the Minister of Finance. He served in this role in the new government led by Eduard Heger.
Personal Life
Igor Matovič is married to Pavlína Matovičová. They have two daughters together.
See also
In Spanish: Igor Matovič para niños
