Former Head of Matica Slovenska Jozef Markus Dies Aged 80

Bratislava, March 3 (TASR) - Former Slovak politician and ex-chairman of national heritage institution Matica Slovenska died on Monday at the age of 80, TASR has been told by his daughter MP Zora Jaurova. "It is with deep sorrow that I'm informing you that my father Jozef Markus, former chairman of Matica Slovenska, left us this morning," stated Jaurova. Jozef Markus was born in the Hungarian town of Niredhaza on March 13, 1944. His father was a Slovak preacher and writer, and the family moved to Slovakia in 1947. He studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava, from which he graduated in 1968. Until 1972 he worked at the Research Institute of Regional Planning in Bratislava and until 1988 at the Institute of Economics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV). Between December 1989 and June 1990, Markus held the post of Vice-premier of the Slovak government, then headed by premier Milan Cic, and he was responsible for economic reform. He contributed significantly to the setting up of the independent Slovak Republic. In 1990 he became the head of Matica Slovenska. From the very beginning of his work in Matica, he pointed out that Matica Slovenska had to go through a transformation process if it wanted to convince people of the legitimacy of its activities. After leaving the post of chairman in 2010, he faced several criminal charges of property crime. In September 2023, Bratislava I Municipal Court acquitted him of the charges. am/df