Iveta Radičová

Iveta Radičová (; born 7 December 1956) is a Slovak sociologist and former politician who served as prime minister of Slovakia from 2010 to 2012. The first woman to hold the position, Radičová led a coalition government as a member of the SDKÚ-DS. As prime minister, she was responsible for managing the economy after the Great Recession, and she supported budget cuts to reduce the government deficit.

Born in communist Czechoslovakia, Radičová began an academic career as a sociologist and specialized in methodology so she did not have to participate in ideological projects. She was one of the few women to take a prominent role in the Velvet Revolution, serving as a spokeswoman for Public Against Violence. She founded the Social Policy Analysis Center in 1992. During the 1990s, she opposed the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the rule of Vladimír Mečiar. In 2005, she was appointed Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family. Radičová was elected a member of parliament in 2006, and she was the runner-up in the 2009 presidential election. She was forced to resign from parliament in 2009 when she cast a vote on behalf of a colleague. In 2010, Radičová's party formed a coalition, making her prime minister. Her coalition collapsed in 2011 when she tied the European Financial Stability Facility to confidence in her government. After stepping down, Radičová returned to academia.

Early life Childhood and education Iveta Karafiátová She has said that her father was strict, while she compared her mother to an angel. Karafiátová grew up in poverty, which she attributed to the country's communist governance and her father's inability to succeed under it. Unlike most academics in her field, she did not join the Communist Party of Slovakia or study Marxism–Leninism. Instead, she specialized in methodology, a field which demanded less ideological adherence. Even then, she was relatively open about her anti-communist beliefs.

Radičová opposed the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, and she supported liberal democracy during the semi-authoritarian rule of Vladimír Mečiar.

Political career

Entering Parliament Mikuláš Dzurinda succeeded Mečiar as prime minister in 1998 as part of a democratic coalition government, and he appointed Radičová as Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family in 2005. Here she specialized in issues relating to families and welfare. As the SDKÚ-DS was an opposition party, she was restricted in her ability to pass legislation.

Radičová enacted efforts to reduce government corruption, establishing an open government initiative. To promote transparency, she required that all public procurement contracts be made available online. Radičová was chosen as Dean of the Faculty of Mass Media at the Pan-European University in 2017. In 2013, Radičová published Krajina hrubých čiar [Country of Full Stops], a book on her experience as prime minister. In a 2014 poll by Polis Slovakia, 23.2% of respondents named Radičová as one of the best recent politicians in the country, putting her second only to Robert Fico, while her name did not appear on the list of twelve least valuable politicians. Radičová was honored with a Women Political Leaders award in 2017. A 2018 poll by Focus found that she was the most popular choice for President of Slovakia, with 13.9%.

Radičová began a relationship with Marián Balázs, the former head of her advisory team, in 2012.