Ivan Šimko is Slovak

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

 politician and former Defence Minister

Defence minister

A defence minister is a person in a cabinet position in charge of a Ministry of Defence, which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations...

.

A founding member of the Christian Democratic Movement

Christian Democratic Movement

The Christian Democratic Movement is a political party in Slovakia.It is represented in the parliament. It was also member of the government coalition, but it left that coalition on 7 February 2006 due to disputes over an international treaty between Slovakia and the Holy See dealing with the...

 (KDH) in 1990, Šimko left to co-found the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union in 2000. After a disagreement with Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda

Mikuláš Dzurinda

Mikuláš Dzurinda is a Slovak politician who was Prime Minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He was a founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union...

, he led a group of MPs to form the Free Forum

Free Forum

The Free Forum is a political party in Slovakia, founded in 2004 by dissident parliamentarians from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union . Zuzana Martináková is the leader of the party....

 in January 2004. He surprisingly lost the party's leadership election two months later to Zuzana Martináková

Zuzana Martináková

Zuzana Martináková is a Slovak politician and a former journalist. She is the leader of the political party Free Forum....

, and he left in October 2004 to form Mission 21 – New Christian Democracy. In May 2010, he returned to the Christian Democratic Movement.