Boris Zala is a Slovak social democratic politician, a member of Slovak parliament
and the current Chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also
Assistant Professor at Constantine the Philosopher University (UKF) in Nitra and
Chair of the Political Science and European Studies Department at UKF’s Faculty
of Philosophy.

Education and Professional Career

Zala graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava in
1979. After graduation he proceeded with his study of philosophy and received his PhDr
degree (1981) and CSc degree (1995) from the same university. In 1981 he worked as
journalist at Slovak Radio but was forced to quit the job due to political persecution and
seek employment in various manual worker professions before he eventually managed to
get a research job at the Social Development and Labour Research Institute in Bratislava
in 1984. In 1990 he became head of the Secretariat of the Speaker of Slovak parliament
and Lecturer in Philosophy at Comenius University, Bratislava. Since 2000 he has been
Chair of the Political Science and European Studies Department at UKF’s Faculty of
Philosophy in the western Slovakian city of Nitra. He is author of six philosophy, political
science and history monographs and has written dozens of research studies and papers
dealing with social science issues. As a media analyst and political commentator he wrote
hundreds of political analyses for the Slovak press and participated in or co-authored a
number of media projects in Slovak Television (STV) and Slovak Radio (SRo). In 1988-89,
Zala took active part in organising protest activities against the Communist regime and was
one of the co-founders of Public Against Violence (VPN) – a broad civic movement
established by democratic activists with the view of putting the country back on democratic
track within the framework of the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

Political and Parliamentary Career

Zala became a Member of Parliament in 1990, shortly after democracy had been
restored in the wake of Communist rule’s collapse in November 1989. During
his first term in parliament he was President of the Social Democratic Party,
Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee of the Slovak parliament and member of
the supreme legislative body’s Presidium. In 1992, he vacated his post as Social
Democratic Party President, to enable Alexander Dubček to assume that function. In 1999,
he became a co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the left-wing political party, Smer-sociálna
demokracia (Direction-Social Democracy). He was elected a Member of Parliament for the
second time in 2002 and re-elected again in the 2006 parliamentary elections. In 2002-2006
he sat on the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and on the Special Oversight
Committee for the Slovak Intelligence Service. After Smer-SD’s victory in the 2006
elections, Zala was elected Chairman of the Slovak parliament’s Foreign Affairs
Committee and took over as head of the Slovak parliamentary delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Presently, he is a member of the
Council of Europe’s Political Affairs Committee, of the Committee on the Honouring of
Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring
Committee) and Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly. He was also a member of
the Convent for the preparation of a new EU Constitution Treaty. His political activity
focuses primarily on foreign policy and EU integration issues and on dialogue between
civilisations, both in the context of Slovak politics as well as within larger European and
EU frameworks. Zala’s chief responsibility in his political party includes policy planning
and strategy issues.

Boris Zala’s Smer-SD, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, won the 2006 parliamentary
elections with 29.1% of the votes and formed the current governing coalition. The party’s
support among Slovak voters is currently much higher than in 2006, oscillating steadily
around 40%.

Sources

• Boris Zala