Preceded by Pavol Paska Succeeded by Pavol Hrusovsky Party Freedom and Solidarity | Role Slovak Politician Name Richard Sulik | |
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Born 12 January 1968 (age 56)
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) ( 1968-01-12 ) Political party Freedom and Solidarity (2009–present) Education Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Economics in Bratislava Profiles | ||
Richard sulik spricht gegen fiskalunion 29 9 2011
Richard Sulík (born 12 January 1968) is a Slovak economist, businessman and politician. He is the leader of the political party Freedom and Solidarity.
Contents
- Richard sulik spricht gegen fiskalunion 29 9 2011
- Sulik Says Greece Should Go Bankrupt Abandon Euro
- Life
- Financial crisis
- Refugee crisis
- References
Sulik Says Greece Should 'Go Bankrupt', Abandon Euro
Life
Born in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, Sulík emigrated in 1980 with his parents to West Germany, where they lived in the city of Pforzheim. In 1987 he went to Munich to study physics and later economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University. When the borders were reopened right after the end of the cold war, Sulík returned in 1991 to Czechoslovakia. While still a student at the University of Economics in Bratislava, he founded and ran the company FaxCOPY.
When he graduated in 2003, Sulík was working as a special advisor of the Slovak Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos, whom he convinced to take his master thesis as a blueprint for the 2004 Slovak tax reform. This tax reform, introducing a 19% flat tax on all types of income and a 19% value added tax, was believed to be the single most important reform leading to the large increase of foreign investment in Slovakia and the economic boom period. After the reform was put through, he remained in the Advisory Board of the Ministry.
Between 2004 and 2006, Sulìk was CEO of a municipal waste disposal company, OLO. He then returned as special advisor to the Ministry of Finance under Ján Počiatek in order to further evolve the tax system. In 2009, Sulík founded the political party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) which he leads as Chairman. In 2010 he replaced Pavol Paška as the Speaker of Parliament.
Financial crisis
On 14 September 2011, Richard Sulik, the President of the Parliament and leader of his party, which is member of ALDE, the third largest political party of the European Parliament, announced that he would not vote for an increase of the funds for the European Financial Stability Facility, believing that allowing Greece to go bankrupt would be a better solution for the rest of the Eurozone member countries.
On 11 October 2011, his party did not vote for the European Financial Stability Facility enlargement even though Prime Minister Iveta Radičová tied the vote with a confidence vote for the government, thus toppling the Slovak government.
Refugee crisis
A former refugee himself, Sulík has strongly opposed the acceptance of refugees from the Middle East, and has expressed anti-Islamic views, stating that "I don't want to live in a Europe where more Muslims are born than Christians".