Jozef Migaš (born 7 January 1954) is a Slovak politician who was Speaker of

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 1998 to 2002, during the government of

Mikuláš Dzurinda Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1955) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. Dzurinda is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democr ...

. He is now in political retirement. He was also acting president in 1998 and 1999.

Early life and career

From 1973-1978 he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. In 1982, he graduated with a Ph.D. Until 1989, he worked as an assistant professor at the Higher Political School of the Central Committee

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 ...

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. ...

, working in party structures at the

Slovak Academy of Sciences The Slovak Academy of Sciences (, or SAV) is the main scientific and research institution in Slovakia fostering basic and strategic basic research. It was founded in 1942, closed after World War II, and then reestablished in 1953. Its primary ...

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 ...

. In 1989, he became one of the founders of the Democratic Left Party, being a member of the party’s executive committee. In 1993, he switched to

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

ic work, being an adviser to the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. In 1995 and 1996, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Slovakia to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

National politics

From 1996-2001, he was Chairman of the Democratic Left Party. During this time, he was Chairman Parliament of Slovakia (1998-2002). From 30 October 1998 to 15 June 1999, he was the Acting

President of Slovakia The president of the Slovak Republic () serves as the head of state of Slovakia and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The people directly elect the president for five years, for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The presidency is essent ...

, serving after the completion of the presidency of

Michal Kováč Michal Kováč (3 August 1930 – 5 October 2016) was the first president of Slovakia, having served from 1993 through 1998. Early life Kováč was born in the village of Ľubiša in then Czechoslovakia in 1929. He then graduated from the p ...

and the political crisis lasting more than a year. In 2003, he completed an internship in foreign policy and improving English in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at the American Language Communication Center.

Return to the diplomatic service

He was engaged in entrepreneurial activity in the 2000s before going back to the diplomatic sphere in 2009 to become the Ambassador of Slovakia in Russia, a position he served in until 2014. On 2 February 2016, he was appointed to the post of ambassador to

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Victory Day and dismissal

One of the attendees of the

2020 Minsk Victory Day Parade The annual Victory Day Parade (; ) on Victors Avenue in Minsk (the capital of Belarus) is a traditional military parade of the Armed Forces of Belarus that takes place every 5 years on 9 May in honor of the jubilee anniversary of the end of the ...

was Migaš, being one of the few foreign ambassadors in attendance. On 13 May 2020, he resigned as ambassador after attending the celebrations as he was one of the two

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

ambassadors (the other being the Hungarian ambassador) who did not inform the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

of their home countries. The Slovak foreign ministry in fact learned about his participation from the local press. He made his explanation one of principled stance, simply stating that he is the "son of a partisan and anti-fascist". In a meeting with Serbian ambassador Veljko Kovacevic on 28 May, President

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

criticized the Slovak government on the move, saying that "frankly speaking, I do not fully understand the position of the official Slovak leadership which allegedly criticized his action". A day after those comments were made the Slovak Foreign Ministry summoned the Belarusian ambassador, saying that Lukashenko's comments on the Slovak position were "disengaged from the truth". Migaš would later be awarded the

Order of Francysk Skaryna The Order of Francysk Skaryna () is an award of Belarus. It is named after Francysk Skaryna, one of the first book printers in Cyrillic script. Order of Francysk Skaryna is a single level award that was instituted on 13 April 1995; it is awarded ...

by President Lukashenko.

Personal life

He speaks several foreign languages outside the

Slovak language Slovak ( ; endonym: or ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script and formerly in Cyrillic script. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is ...

: English,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, Ukrainian. He owns 35 hectares of land in his home town. Upon leaving Belarus for the final time as ambassador, he took a

German shepherd The German Shepherd, also known in Britain as an Alsatian, is a German Dog breed, breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various Old German herding dogs, traditional German herding dog ...

dog which was gifted to him by the Border Guard Service of Belarus.

Awards

* –

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...

(28 October 2014) * –

(15 June 2020)Указ Президента Республики Беларусь от 15 июня 2020 года № 212 «О награждении»
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Migas, Jozef 1954 births Living people People from Prešov District Slovak communists Party of the Democratic Left (Slovakia) politicians Speakers of the National Council (Slovakia) Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1998–2002 Ambassadors of Slovakia to Russia Ambassadors of Slovakia to Ukraine Ambassadors of Slovakia to Belarus Leaders of political parties in Slovakia Acting presidents of Slovakia