Ján Figeľ
Ján Figeľ (born 20 January 1960) is a Slovak politician who served as European Commissioner from 2004 to 2009, then as Slovak Minister of Transport from 2010 to 2012. From 2016 to 2019, Figeľ was European Commission special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion outside the EU.
Quotes
- …religion frees people from the worship of secular values and authoritarian state power. I know this from experience. I lived half my life under a communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. My own uncle was killed by the secret police. The regime sought to crush both historic and new religions through many forms of coercion. But it [had] ultimately collapsed, peacefully, in 1989. In Slovakia, the main force behind the peaceful resistance and the fight for freedom was the Christian community—especially the Catholic Church.
- As quoted in "Figeľ: “The Unification Church Case Highlights the Threat to Religious Freedom in Japan”", Bitter Winter (September 10, 2025)
