Ján Podmanický

Podmanický studied Theology and Law at the Comenius University. He has three children.^[2]

Podmanický has been a member of the Smer-SD party and the mayor of Stará Bystrica since 2002. He was first elected in the parliamentary election of the same year for the coalition HZD, HZDS, P-SNS, SNS, and Smer.^[3] Since 2006, Podmanický has been member of the National Council of Slovakia for Smer^[4] and became an independent politician from May 2020.^[5] He joined fellow MPs Marián Kéry and Tomáš Taraba to establish a Conservative Platform. Podmanický subsequently left Direction – Slovak Social Democracy, which he has been a member of since the beginning of his political career and became an independent politician. He justified his departure by his unwillingness to accept the leftward shift of the party ideology.^[6]