Ján Slota

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Ján Slota in 2006

Ján Slota (September 14, 1953 in Lietavská Lúčka) is the co-founder and President of the Slovak National Party (SNS).^[1] He was the mayor of the town of Žilina between 1990-2006. He is succeeded by Ivan Harman.

Slota became involved in politics after 1989 when the Communist party fell from power in Czechoslovakia in the Velvet Revolution. In 1990 he co-founded SNS and was elected as a member of the Federal Assembly. Later, he was elected into the National Council of the Slovak Republic. From 1994-1999 he served as the leader of SNS. After an internal crisis in the SNS in 2001, he left the party and set up his own party, the Real Slovak National Party . As a result of this split, none of the nationalist parties received the required 5% minimum of votes in the 2002 election. In 2003, the nationalist parties merged again, after heavy quarrels, with Slota as chairman.^{[citation needed]}

Slota has served as the mayor of Žilina between 1990 and 2006, overseeing the modernization of the city. He was reelected in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

In the 2006 parliamentary election, Slota became an MP and his SNS joined the ruling coalition with Robert Fico´s Direction - Social Democracy party and Vladimír Mečiar´s People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia. As a part of the coalition agreement, Slota didn't obtain any government position.^{[citation needed]}

Slota is frequently criticized for his arrogance and nationalism. In his defence, Slota says he is protecting Slovaks, especially those living in southern Slovakia.

He has repeatedly made and makes xenophobic, nationalist, abusing statements about the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (the party of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia), and Hungarians in general. He also strongly abuses in his speeches the Roma and homosexuals, although Slota says he is only against alleged homosexual propaganda. In a speech given in 1999 at a HZDS rally on 5 March 1999, Slota (obviously drunk) said, "Do we Slovaks want [the Hungarians] to return... and teach us the Lord's Prayer in Hungarian? No way! We will jump into our tanks, and we will go and flatten Budapest... We will fight, fight for our land, we will fight for every square meter. We won't give even a square centimeter to those Hungarian assholes." The The Slovak Spectator reported on 9 April 1998 that Slota said the best policy for Romani is "a long whip in a small yard."^[1]