Oto arnay

Oto Žarnay, born on 18 March 1969 in Košice, is a Slovak teacher, anticorruption activist, and politician. He studied Pedagogy at the University of Prešov and worked as a proofreader, editor, and teacher. While serving as the director of the teacher parents association at Commerce Academy high school in Košice, he exposed suspicious payments of €400 monthly to a law firm with no apparent services provided. In 2013, he wrote a public letter to Prime Minister Robert Fico, prompting the Education Minister to meet with him. Žarnay and MP Ján Mičovský filed a lawsuit, and audits confirmed that over €12,000 was paid without justification. Despite this, Žarnay was fired in 2016 but later reinstated by the appellate court in December 2018.

Between 2014 and 2018, Žarnay served as an independent town councilor in Košice. He became an MP in 2016 on the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities list. In 2017, he co-founded the Together – Civic Democracy party with Miroslav Beblavý, Jozef Mihál, Katarína Macháčková, Zuzana Zimenová, Simona Petrík, and Viera Dubačová. After the party failed to meet the representation threshold in the 2020 parliamentary election, Žarnay retired from politics.