Magda Vášáryová is a Slovak politician, former actress, and diplomat born on August 26, 1948, in Banská Štiavnica. She began her acting career at the age of 15 in the film Senzi Mama (1964) and continued to work as an actress in various theaters until 1990.
Vášáryová studied sociology at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava from 1966 to 1971. She worked as an actress in the Korze Theater, the New Stage, and the Slovak National Theater. She is the author of the book memoirs Short Letters to a Town (1988).
In 1988, she was awarded the title of Merited Artist. From 1990 to 1993, she served as the Czech-Slovak ambassador to Austria, where she lived with her daughters in Vienna while her husband stayed in Bratislava.
Vášáryová organized a meeting at home in 1993, which led to the formation of the Slovak Society for Foreign Policy (SFPA). She served as its director from 1993 to 2000 and is currently the Honorary Chair of the SFPA Board.
In 1998, she founded Občianske oko. In the 1999 elections, she ran as an independent candidate for the post of President of Slovakia, winning 6.6% of the vote. She did not make it to the second round.
From 2000 to 2005, Vášáryová served as Slovakia's ambassador to Poland. She then held the position of State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic from February 21, 2005, to 2006.
In the summer of 2005, she joined SDKÚ. On December 12, 2013, she resigned from the party along with Lucia Žitňanská and Miroslav Beblavý.
Since November 15, 2013, Vášáryová has been the president of the Živena association. Her goals include modernizing communication, adding a membership base, and raising more money through grants.
In 2016, she did not run for parliament again. Instead, she led the Institute for Cultural Policy and taught at the CEVRO INSTITUTE in the Czech Republic.
Vášáryová received the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Prize for Civil Service and the Lifelong Fight against Corruption in 2016. She is the sister of actress Emilie Vášáryová and has two daughters from her two marriages to actors Dušan Jamrich and Milan Lasica.
