Biography
Magdaléna Vášáryová (born August 26, 1948, in Banská Štiavnica) is a Slovak politician, former actress, and diplomat. She has been a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic representing SDKÚ-DS since 2006. On December 12, 2013, she left the party and served as an independent member of parliament until the formation of Robert Fico's third government in 2016.
Her acting career began at age 15 with the film Senzi Mama (1964).
Between 1966 and 1971, she studied sociology at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1970, she performed in the Korze Theater, then at the New Stage (1971–1983), and later at the Slovak National Theater (1983–1990). She authored the memoir Short Letters to a Town (1988), about Banská Štiavnica.
In 1988, she was honored with the title Merited Artist.
From 1990 to 1993, she served as the Czechoslovak ambassador to Austria. During this period, she lived in Vienna with her daughters while her husband remained in Bratislava. Although diplomatic spouses typically receive support, Vášáryová, as a diplomat herself, was initially denied compensation for her non-working spouse status; Václav Havel and Jiří Dienstbier later ensured she received this payment.
On May 3, 1993, she hosted a meeting that led to the formation of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA), where she was director from 1993 to 2000. As of 2020, she chairs the SFPA Board as Honorary Chair. She also founded Občianske oko in 1998.
In the 1999 presidential election, she ran as an independent candidate, receiving 194,635 votes (6.6%) but did not advance to the second round. She declared her candidacy in February 1999 in Banská Bystrica, aiming to affirm the changes of 1989 and 1998. She was Slovakia’s first female presidential candidate.
From 2000 to 2005, she was Slovakia’s ambassador to Poland, succeeding Ondrej Nemčok and preceding František Ružička. On February 21, 2005, she became State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mikuláš Dzurinda’s second government.
She joined SDKÚ in summer 2005 but resigned on December 12, 2013, alongside Lucia Žitňanská and Miroslav Beblavý.
Since November 15, 2013, she has served as president of the Živena association. Her goals include modernizing communication, expanding membership, and increasing funding through grants. She succeeded Zora Breier in this role.
Vášáryová chose not to run for parliament in 2016. Besides leading Živena, she has headed the Institute for Cultural Policy and teaches at the CEVRO Institute in the Czech Republic.
In 2016, the Prague Society for International Cooperation awarded her the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Prize for Civil Service and her lifelong fight against corruption.
She is the sister of actress Emilie Vášáryová. Her first husband was actor Dušan Jamrich; her second husband is Milan Lasica. She has two daughters.
