Andrej Danko | |
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9th Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic | |
Assumed office 23 March 2016 |
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Preceded by | Peter Pellegrini |
Personal details | |
Born |
Revúca, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) |
12 August 1974
Political party | Slovak National Party |
Alma mater | Comenius University |
Andrej Danko (born 12 August 1974) is a Slovak lawyer and a politician. He has been Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic since 2016 and Chairman of the Slovak National Party since 2012.
Born in Revúca, Danko studied at the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava. After compulsory military service, he founded several commercial companies and worked as an independent lawyer.
During 2006–2010, he was an assistant in the National Council of Slovakia and a member of several parliamentary commissions. He became the first vice-president of the Slovak National Party in 2010.
In 2012, he became the chairman of the party after getting support from many of the party's members, succeeding Ján Slota.
On 23 March 2016 Danko was elected Speaker of the National Council.
In September 2016, while in his position as the Speaker of the Parliament, Danko was promoted by eight ranks (from OR-4 to O-2), to Captain in Reserve of the Slovak Army, by his friend Peter Gajdoš, the Minister of Defense. The promotion was viewed by some in the media, general and internet public as a sign of corrupt government. This is because a single promotion by eight ranks has never happened in the history of Slovak Army, not at all to a person who has only joined mandatory national service for the period of one year.