Eduard Heger

Eduard Heger
Prime Minister of Slovakia
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 April 2021
President	Zuzana Čaputová
Preceded by	Igor Matovič
Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia
In office 21 March 2020 – 1 April 2021 Serving with Richard Sulík, and Veronika Remišová
Prime Minister	Igor Matovič
Preceded by	Richard Raši Peter Kažimír László Sólymos
Succeeded by	Richard Sulík Igor Matovič Štefan Holý Veronika Remišová
Minister of Finance
In office 21 March 2020 – 1 April 2021
Prime Minister	Igor Matovič
Preceded by
Succeeded by	Igor Matovič
Member of the National Council
In office 23 March 2016 – 21 March 2020
Personal details
Born	(1976-05-03) 3 May 1976 (age 45) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Political party	Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (since 2016)
Spouse(s)	Lucia Hegerová
Children	4
Education	University of Economics in Bratislava
Signature

Eduard Heger (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈeduard ˈɦeger]; born 3 May 1976) is a Slovak politician serving as Prime Minister of Slovakia since 1 April 2021. He previously served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Igor Matovič. Heger is a member of the presidium of the catch-all movement Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO).

Education and professional career[]

Education[]

In 1999, he completed five years of study at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Economics in Bratislava with the academic degree Engineer (Ing).

Professional career[]

After graduating, he became an assistant of the general director of the Slovak company Intercomp Imex, which is engaged in the production of bathroom accessories. In 1998–1999, he worked as a manager at the Kohútik restaurants group in Bratislava; in 1999–2000, he was sales manager at the EBI company. From 2001 to 2005, he worked as a junior consultant for the American company Cubic Application, which acted as an advisory team to the Slovak Ministry of Defence. From 2005 to 2007, he worked as a manager of the Christian community under the administration of the Cathedral of St. Martin in Bratislava. From 2007 to 2016, he worked in the United States as a country manager for the Slovak vodka producer Old Nassau.^[1][2]

Political career[]

In opposition, 2016–2020[]

In the 2016 parliamentary election, he ran from 24th place on the candidate list of the anti-corruption movement OĽaNO for the National Council of the Slovak Republic. After personal votes of voters, of whom he received more than 15,000, he placed 10th in his movement and was elected a member of parliament. He became the chairman of the OĽaNO parliamentary group, the chairman of the National Council Committee for Control of Military Intelligence and a member of the Economic and Foreign Affairs committees. Heger was a very active and vigorous critic of Fico's Third Cabinet in Parliament. During his term, he was evaluated as the 2nd most active member of the National Council. He presented 173 bills and spoke 680 times in Parliament. He was the opposition shadow Minister of Finance and drew up "Program for sound public finances" of his movement and presented a set of measures to fight bureaucracy. He also participated in and organised several anti-corruption and anti-government protests. During the election term, he was a co-organiser of the ZASTAVME HAZARD (Stop Gambling) initiative, which fought to ban gaming and slot machines.^[3][4]

In government, 2020–present[]

He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the Cabinet of Igor Matovič in 2020. Following Matovič's resignation, Heger was appointed Prime Minister of Slovakia in April 2021.

Political views[]

His political partners from the government describe him as a humble, docile and decent man. He is a strong believer and advocates moderate conservative and liberal conservative positions in drug, abortion or LGBT policies.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[]

Heger has four children and is married to his wife Lucia.^[5][6] He is a strong believer and in his free time he worked in several functions of the Catholic Church of Slovakia. He converted from an atheist to Christianity after the death of his father in 1999.^[7]

References[]