Matúš Vallo

Matúš Vallo
Vallo in 2017
Mayor of Bratislava
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 December 2018
Preceded by	Ivo Nesrovnal
Personal details
Born	(1977-09-18) 18 September 1977 (age 46) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
Political party	Team Bratislava (2022–present)
Spouse	Linda Vallová
Children	1
Alma mater	Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Ing.) Columbia University

Matúš Vallo (born 18 September 1977) is a Slovak politician, architect, urban activist, musician, and the current Mayor of Bratislava. He was elected in 2018 with 36.5% of the vote as an independent politician,^[1] and re-elected in 2022 with 60.2% of the vote backed by his own local party Team Bratislava as well as Sloboda a Solidarita and Progresívne Slovensko.^[2]

Vallo is married with one child.^[3] He is the grandson of Miroslav Válek, a former minister of culture for Communist party of Czechoslovakia.^[4]

Vallo went to secondary school in Rome, Italy. Being interested in art and geometry, he went on to combine through architecture. Vallo graduated from The Faculty of Architecture at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava in 2004.^[5] Between 2010 and 2011, Vallo received a Fulbright research scholarship to attend Columbia University where he worked on a project called City Interventions at the Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting.^[6]

Vallo was the first candidate to run for Bratislava mayor in the 2018 Slovak local elections.^[7] Vallo ran for the post as an independent, but with the help and strong support of non-parliamentary political parties Progressive Slovakia and Democrats^[8] backed by a group of experts called Team Vallo who have previously worked on project to improve the quality of life in Bratislava which resulted in a book, Plán Bratislava having been published.^[9]

Vallo's main rivals were Václav Mika, the former director of RTVS, the public broadcaster, and the then-mayor Ivo Nesrovnal.^[10] During the campaign, he vowed to improve the way the city administration communicates with citizens, make processes more transparent and engage more with the residents.^[11][12] Vallo criticised then-mayor Nesrovnal for his inability to come to agreement with the members of the city council, leading to the deadlock in implementing the new parking policy, stagnating improvement of the cycling infrastructure and other issues.^[13][14][15] He was officially sworn into office as Bratislava's mayor on 7 December 2018.^[16]

One of the first^[17] policies Vallo started to work on was the parking policy delays with the implementation of which he has previously criticised^[13] his predecessor for. His aim was decide on the framework the city borough and the city council will build upon, in the first half of 2019^[18] The original proposal included residential parking zones in locations decided by the city boroughs.^[19]

The proposal caused some backlash, after which some changes had been made.^[20] The cost of the yearly parking card was reduced to €39; additional €10 a year allow parking in other boroughs for a maximum of two hours.^[21][22] In October 2020, the launch of the parking policy was announced to be delayed until autumn 2021.^[23]

Vallo initiated the establishment of the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava.^[24] The Metropolitan institute of Bratislava has developed the manifest and the manual for public spaces.^[25]

Under Vallo, the review of planning permission became stricter, with more projects being rejected for ignoring or bypassing requirements.^[26][27][28]

Along with the capitals of the other Visegrád Group countries, Vallo signed the Pact of Free Cities to promote "common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity".^[29] Vallo supports the Bratislava Pride and has attended it both during his mayoral term and before.^[30]