Vladimír Palko
Vladimír Palko
Member of the National Council of the Slovak RepublicSlovak National Council until 31 December 1992
In office7 February 2006 – 12 June 2010
In office30 October 1998 – 15 October 2002
Interior Minister of Slovakia
In office15 October 2002 – 7 February 2006
Preceded byIvan Šimko
Succeeded byMartin Pado
Personal details
Born (1957-05-20) 20 May 1957
Čuňovo, Czechoslovakia
NationalitySlovak
PartyConservative Democrats of Slovakia
SpouseViera Palková
Children3
EducationComenius University
Occupationmathematician, university professor

Vladimír Palko (born 20 May 1957 in Čuňovo) is a Slovak politician. He is a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and former interior minister of Slovakia.[1][2] On 12 March 2008 he established a new party called Conservative Democrats of Slovakia after he left Christian Democratic Movement in February 2008, due to his skepticism and disappointment about leadership of Pavol Hrušovský.[3] This political party was dissolved in 2014.[4]

He is married and has three children.[5] His son Vladimír Jr. is a historian who has worked at the National Memory Institute.[6] Another son, Andrej, is an actor[7] and a member of the Drama Ensemble of the State Theatre Košice.[8] He also has a daughter, Viera.[9]

Early career

In 1981, Vladimír Palko graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Comenius University in Bratislava, and in 1987 he obtained the degree of Candidate of Sciences. Between 1981 and 1990, he worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, and as a researcher at the Institute of Technical Cybernetics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.[5]

From 1991 to 1996, he served as an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology. He obtained the academic title of Associate Professor (Docent) in mathematics in 1996.[5]

Political career

From 1991 to 1992, he served as Deputy Director of the Federal Security Information Service.[5]

Christian Democratic Movement

Vladimír Palko has been a founding member of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)[10] in 1989.

From November 1996 to July 1998, he was active in KDH as vice-chairman of the party. In July 1998, he became a member of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and was elected as a Member of the National Council.[10]

He renewed his membership in KDH on 15 January 1999. in April he became KDH Vice-Chairman for Press and External Relations and he was reconfirmed in this position several times. In the 2002 parliamentary elections, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for KDH.[10]

In July 2006, after ten years, he resigned from his position in the KDH presidium. This step was a reaction to his disagreement with the election of the chair of the KDH parliamentary group following the parliamentary elections. At that time, at a party congress in Senec, KDH voted in favor of possible coalition cooperation with SMER, which Vladimír Palko and others opposed.[11] SMER, however, subsequently formed a coalition with HZDS and SNS and KDH moved into opposition.[12]

In June 2007, Vladimír Palko ran for chairman of KDH but the congress confirmed Pavol Hrušovský in a secret ballot.[13]

Ultimately, on 21 February 2008, he left the party, together with František Mikloško, Pavol Minárik, and Rudolf Bauer, with the intention of founding a new political party.[14][15]

Conservative Democrats of Slovakia

The new political party Conservative Democrats of Slovakia (KDS) was registered with the Ministry of the Interior on 22 July 2008 and Vladimír Palko became its first chairman.[16]

In the 2009 European Parliament elections he was the lead candidate on the KDS–OKS coalition list.[17] This coalition also signed a cooperation agreement with Declan Ganley’s pan-European Eurosceptic movement Libertas in Bratislava on 15 May 2009. Libertas supported the KDS–OKS candidates in the elections to the European Parliament.[18]

However, the coalition received only 2.1% of the vote and won no seats. KDS did not contest the 2010 parliamentary elections, citing the party’s financial problems.[19] In 2014, the party was dissolved following Rudolf Bauer’s failure in the Košice mayoral elections.[4]

Post-Political Career

After leaving politics, Palko has been primarily engaged in writing and journalism.[20]

From 2010 to 2020, he contributed to the conservative magazine Postoj[21] and from 2021, until his departure in 2025, he was an commentator at Štandard magazine.[22] In 2025, together with former editors of Štandard, he co-founded the media outlet Marker, where he works as a commentator.[23]

References

  1. ^Vladimír Palko, Úrad vlády SR
  2. ^"Konzervatívni demokrati Slovenska, ľudia". Archived from the original on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
  3. ^"Palko založil stranu konzervatívnych demokratov". hnonline.sk. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  4. ^ abKern, Miro (2015-01-09). "Palkova strana KDS potichu zanikla". Denník N (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  5. ^ abcda.s, Petit Press. "ŽIVOTOPIS: Vladimír Palko". SME.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  6. ^"Vladimír Palko ml". Konzervatívny denník Postoj (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  7. ^"Andrej Palko | Biografia". ČSFD.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  8. ^"Andrej Palko | Národné divadlo Košice". www.sdke.sk. Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  9. ^Sudor, Karol (2019-11-20). "Vladimír Palko: Ak je niekto muž, je pre mňa mužom, hoci sa cíti byť ženou. Držím sa objektívnej reality (ukážka z novej knihy)". Denník N (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  10. ^ abc"Štandard - Vladimír Palko". Štandard - Vladimír Palko (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  11. ^Palko, Vladimír (2008-03-02). "Čo sa stalo v KDH". .týždeň - iný pohľad na spoločnosť (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  12. ^a.s, Petit Press. "Smer, SNS a HZDS zostavili kabinet pred necelými 16 mesiacmi". SME.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  13. ^a.s, Petit Press. "Hrušovský: KDH nie je v kríze, aj keď to nie je ideálne". SME.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  14. ^"Palkovci nejdú do volieb". Pravda.sk (in Slovak). 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  15. ^a.s, Petit Press. "Hlasy nespokojných voličov chce nová Palkova strana". SME.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  16. ^"Register politických strán a politických hnutí". ives.minv.sk. Archived from the original on 2024-06-17. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  17. ^a.s, Petit Press. "Kandidáti pre voľby do Európskeho parlamentu". SME.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  18. ^"KDS-OKS sa spojilo s Libertas". euractiv.sk (in Slovak). 2009-05-15. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  19. ^"Konzervatívni Demokrati Slovenska". www.kdsonline.sk. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  20. ^Sudor, Karol (2019-11-20). "Vladimír Palko: Ak je niekto muž, je pre mňa mužom, hoci sa cíti byť ženou. Držím sa objektívnej reality (ukážka z novej knihy)". Denník N (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  21. ^"Vladimír Palko". Konzervatívny denník Postoj (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  22. ^"Organizácia". Denník Štandard (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  23. ^Marker.sk. "Vladimír Palko - Komentátor". Marker.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-12-14.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vladimír_Palko&oldid=1335131239"