Ján Čarnogurský is a Slovak former politician, a former Prime Minister of Slovakia and the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement. Today he is chairman of Slovak-Russian association with headquarters in Bratislava. He is married and has 4 children.
Before 1989
He studied Law at the Charles University in Prague and at the Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1970 to 1981, first he was active as a junior attorney-at-law, then as an attorney-at-law in Bratislava, and was member of a section of the Center of Czech and Slovak attorneys-at-law. In 1981, he was deprived of his attorney-at-law licence by the Communist authorities, because he had defended a person in a political process. However, he continued to provide legal advice to opposition and religious activists. Between 1982 and 1986 first he was active as a driver, then as a company lawyer. In 1987 he was fired and remained unemployed. He was an important figure in the secretchurch in Slovakia and, between 1987 and 1989, he published illegally the magazine Bratislavské listy. He represented the Christian Democratic wing within the Anti-Communist opposition in Czechoslovakia.
1989–1992
Shortly before the Velvet Revolution, on August 14, 1989, he was imprisoned and released only after the collapse of the Communist regime through a presidential amnesty on November 25, 1989. From December 1989 to April 1990 he was the first vice-prime minister, since April to June 1990 the vice-prime minister of Czechoslovakia. He was a co-founder and, since February 1990, the chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement of Slovakia. Since the Christian Democratic Movement was Slovakia's second largest party after the 1990 Slovak parliamentary election, Čarnogurský became the vice-prime minister of Slovakia and in June 1990. After the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia split from the Public against Violence, i.e. from the party that had won the 1990 elections, Čarnogurský took over the post of the prime minister of Slovakia in April 1991. During this period characterized by quarrels between Czechs and Slovaks concerning the future of their co-existence he became famous by his statement that in the future Slovakia should have its own "little star" in Europe, which at the time of existence of Czechoslovakia was a shocking statement.
In 2002, he retired from politics altogether and has been working as an attorney-at-law since. Pavol Hrušovský became the new chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement.
Secondary functions
February 1990 – August 1990: chairman of the Legislative Council of the Czechoslovak government
1990–1991: chairman of the Slovak government Council for Information Policy and Mass media and chairman of the Slovak government Council for Nationalities and Ethnic Groups
2002 - Member of the Advisory Board of the - a respected NGO which works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world. Global Panel has offices and satellites in Berlin, Copenhagen, New York, Prague, Sydney and Toronto.
