Jana Žitňanská

Jana Žitňanská
Member of the European Parliament for Slovakia
In office 2 July 2014 – 1 July 2019
Member of the National Council
In office 20 March 2020 – 25 October 2023
In office 8 July 2010 – 1 July 2014
Personal details
Born	(1974-05-17) 17 May 1974 (age 50) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Political party	Democrats (from 2023)
Other political affiliations	Christian Democratic Movement (1998–2012) New Majority (2012–2019) For the People (2019–2023)
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Journalist

Jana Žitňanská (born 17 May 1974) is a Slovak journalist^[1] and politician. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2014 as well as the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Žitňanská worked as a member of the Broadcasting and Retransmission Council between 2001 and 2007.^[2]

Political career

Early political career

Žitňanská held the position of vice-president of KDH until from 1998 until 28 May 2012, after which she joined Gábor Grendel with establishing the political party NOVA^[3] and served as vice-president.^[4]

In the 2014 European Parliament election, Žitňanská ran in second place as a candidate for the coalition of parties NOVA, KDS, and OKS.^[5] On 12 February 2019, Žitňanská announced that she would not run again in the EP elections in European Parliament election that year, citing her desire to change Slovakia's approach to disabled people and their families.^[6]

For the People and Democrats

In 2019, Žitňanská joined For the People, a newly-established party of former president Andrej Kiska. She was elected vice-president of the party at its constituent assembly on 28 September 2019.^[7] Žitňanská ran from fourth place of For the People candidate in the 2020 Slovak parliamentary election,^[8] receiving 50,646 preferential votes and moved to third place.^[9] Upon the dissolution of the parliamentary club, Žitňanská continued to work as an unaffiliated member of the party until 31 March 2023, when she resigned from the party together with deputy Juraj Šeliga.^[10]

Both Žitňanská and Šeliga joined Democrats upon leaving For the People, with the former being an unclassified member of the Democrats in the National Council of the Slovakia.^[11] Democrats won 2.93% of the votes in the parliamentary elections in September 2023 and did not make it to the council;^[12] Žitňanská received 19,686 preferential votes.^[13]

References

1. "Mama troch detí do Europarlamentu. Jana Žitňanská". Rodinka.sk (in Slovak). 20 May 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
2. "Zvolili troch členov Rady pre vysielanie a retransmisiu". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
3. Tódová, Monika (15 December 2016). "Daniel Lipšic vystupuje z KDH". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
4. "Náš tím". NOVA Slovakia (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
5. "Strany NOVA, OKS a KDS predstavili svojich kandidátov do eurovolieb". Teraz.sk (in Slovak). 14 April 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
6. "Jana Žitňanská už nebude kandidovať do europarlamentu". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press. 12 February 2019.
7. "Predsedom strany Za ľudí sa stal A. Kiska". 24hod.sk (in Slovak). 28 September 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
8. "Všeobecné informácie". volbysr.sk (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
9. "Voľby do Národnej Rady SR 2016 | Definitívne výsledky hlasovania". volbysr.sk (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
10. "Juraj Šeliga a Jana Žitňanská končia v strane Za ľudí". Aktuality.sk (in Slovak). Bratislava: Ringier Axel Springier Slovakia. 3 April 2023.
11. Mikušovič, Dušan (21 April 2023). "K Demokratom sa pridávajú Šeliga a Žitňanská. Keby sa všetci dobrí stiahli, zostali by len zlí, vysvetlil Šeliga". Denník N (in Slovak). Bratislava: N Press.
12. "Voľby do Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky 2023 | Hlasy pre politické subjekty". volby.statistics.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 3 October 2023.
13. "Voľby do Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky 2023 | Prednostné hlasy pre kandidátov na poslancov". volby.statistics.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 1 October 2023.