Ján Budaj

Ján Budaj (born 10 February 1952) is a Slovak politician and environmental activist. He is mostly known by his participation in the Velvet Revolution. He served as the Minister of Environment from 21 March 2020, in the cabinets of Igor Matovič and Eduard Heger until the dissolution of the Heger Cabinet on 15 May 2023.^[1]

Ján Budaj
Budaj in 2010
Minister of the Environment
In office 21 March 2020 – 15 May 2023
Prime Minister	Igor Matovič Eduard Heger
Preceded by	Árpád Érsek
Succeeded by	Milan Chrenko
Personal details
Born	(1952-02-10) February 10, 1952 (age 72) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
Political party	VPN (1989–1991) DEÚS (1994–1995) DÚ (1995–2000) Change from Below (2000–present)
Other political affiliations	SDK (1998–2002) OĽaNO (2016–2022) Democrats (2023–present)

At the end of the 1970s, he founded the Temporary Society of Intensive Experience (DISP) with one of the first signatories of Charter 77 in Slovakia, Tomáš Petřivý, and the poet Vladimír Archleb. Within the framework of DISP, they created various events in the streets of Bratislava: happenings, unauthorized musical events, unofficial exhibitions, etc. In the 1980s, he worked as an ecological and civic activist, and was the compiler of the samizdat publication Bratislava/voice, published in 1987.^[2]

References

1. "Nový minister životného prostredia J. Budaj si prevzal svoj rezort". Teraz.sk (in Slovak). 2020-03-21. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
2. "Bratislava/nahlas". 17. november 1989 (in Slovak). Retrieved 2022-11-13.