Edita Pfundtner Okayed as New Justice Ministry State Secretary

Bratislava, August 22 (TASR) – Edita Pfundtner was greenlighted in her new role as Justice Ministry state secretary by the Government on Wednesday, and is set to replace non-partisan nominee Maria Kolikova.

The nomination was submitted by Justice Minister Gabor Gal (Most-Hid), with Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stating prior to the session that he respects this choice.

Pfundtner will start in her new job on Thursday (August 23). Kolikova asked to be released in the wake of her differences of opinion with new Justice Minister Gal, thereby following in the footsteps of former justice minister Lucia Zitnanska (Most-Hid), who left the Government in March after the murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee. Kolikova was tasked with managing a judiciary audit project.

“She [Pfundtner] and Justice Minister Gabor Gal have known each other since their student days and were colleagues in Parliament for a couple of years. Together they have a long history of political and expert collaboration. After joining the ministry, Edita Pfundtner will also take over the agenda of streamlining the judiciary,” said ministry spokesperson Zuzana Drobova.

In the past, Pfundtner served as parliamentary constitutional committee vice-chair (2010-12) and later as a member (2014-16). In the current election term, she was a member of the committee for human rights and ethnic minorities (2016-spring 2018), and she currently serves on the European affairs and economy committees.

An alumnus of Comenius University’s Law Faculty and the Prague-based University of International and Public Relations, Pfundtner has practised law since 2004 and is also active in local politics as a Bratislava-Nove Mesto councillor (since 2010).