Mikuláš Dzurinda is a former Prime Minister of Slovakia who served in this position from 1998 to 2006. A veteran politician, he has been involved in Slovakian politics from a long time and has held various high profile positions in the government. He is one of the founding members of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), a conservative political party officially constituted in 1990. Following the first democratic general election in Czechoslovakia, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Transportation and Posts of the Slovak Government. He was serving as the KDH Deputy Chairman responsible for economy during the period which saw the split of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of an independent Slovakia. Later on he formed a coalition, the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK), by teaming up KDH with four other opposition parties and became its chairman. Eventually the coalition defeated the government of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar at the polls, and gave him the opportunity to form a new government. After becoming the Prime Minister in 1998, he immediately set to work on strengthening Slovakia’s position in international trade and began the process of joining the EU and NATO. He also implemented several other progressive reforms which made him very popular as the Prime Minister, leading to his re-election for a second term in 2002