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Andrej Kiska

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Andrej Kiska
Kiska in 2014
4th President of Slovakia
In office
15 June 2014 – 15 June 2019
Prime MinisterRobert Fico
Peter Pellegrini
Preceded byIvan Gašparovič
Succeeded byZuzana Čaputová
Chairman of For the People
In office
28 September 2019 – 8 August 2020
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byVeronika Remišová
Personal details
Born (1963-02-02) 2 February 1963 (age 61)
Poprad, Czechoslovakia
(now Slovakia)
Political partyFor the People (2019–2021)
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1983; div. 2001)​

Martina Kisková (nee Živorová)
​
​
(m. 2003)​
Children5
Alma materSlovak University of
Technology
Signature

Andrej Kiska (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈandrej ˈkiska]; born 2 February 1963) is a Slovak politician, entrepreneur, writer and philanthropist who served as the fourth president of Slovakia from 2014 to 2019. He ran as an independent candidate in the 2014 presidential election in which he was elected to the presidency in the second round of voting over Prime Minister Robert Fico.[1][2][3] Kiska declined to run for a second term in 2019. He has written two books about happiness, success, and his life.

Early life

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Kiska was born in Poprad. He studied electrical engineering. His father was an active member of the ruling Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS). He also applied for Communist party membership, but was rejected.[4] Kiska is an ethnic Goral.[5]

Career

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Kiska moved to the United States in 1990, one year after the Velvet Revolution.[6] He later founded Triangel and Quatro,[7] two Slovakia-based hire-purchase companies that give the buyer the possibility to pay for goods in several installments over a number of months instead of paying the full price at once.[8]

Tax authorities accused his co-owned company KTAG (with his brother Jaroslav) of tax non-compliance and under-payments, regarding expenses for his presidential campaign. The company eventually agreed to pay the taxes and a penalty.[9][10]

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Kiska's companies were involved in a number of tax-non compliance issues. Improperly reported income from various business activities resulted in a smaller VAT and Income tax payments.[11][12] Process against Kiska and his business partner from KTAG s.r.o. Eduard Kučkovský commenced in June 2023 at District Court in Poprad.[13] He was convicted and sentenced to a two-years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros (about $16,300). In 2024, the fine was cancelled while the prison term was reduced to one following an appeal.[14] The conviction resulted in the cancellation of his pension by the Slovak presidential office.[15]

In his personal tax filing he did not disclose personal propagation before elections performed by his company as a non-cash income, but claimed that he paid for it. Eventually tax office confirmed he did not pay, did not report non-cash income, and his company did not report income from propagation activities but fully deducted all VAT. Remaining costs additionally decreased tax base.[9][16][17]

Philanthropy

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In 2006, Kiska co-founded a non-profit charitable organization called Dobrý anjel (translated as Good Angel), in which donors help families that have found themselves in a difficult financial situation as a result of a family member contracting a serious disease, such as cancer).[7][18] By 2016, more than 170,000 people have donated to this organization in Slovakia.[19] Good Angel expanded their activities also to Czech Republic in 2014, where 60.000 are paying their monthly contributions in 2016.[20]

President of Slovakia (2014–2019)

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Kiska with President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, Santiago de Chile, 2016
Kiska with President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis, Riga, December 2018
Kiska with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Grassalkovich Palace, February 2019

In the first round of the 2014 Slovak presidential election, Kiska placed second with 24% of the vote, behind Prime Minister Robert Fico (28%). As none of candidates got more than 50% of votes, Kiska and Fico progressed to a presidential run-off vote on 29 March 2014. With the support of right-wing parties and other defeated candidates, Kiska won decisively in the second round, receiving nearly 60% of the vote.[21] He took office on 15 June.[22]

Kiska announced on 15 May 2018 that he will not participate in 2019 presidential election, arguing that his departure might end "the era of political confrontation" his country faced and citing a desire to spend more time with his family.[23][24] At the time Kiska made the announcement, polls indicated that he was Slovakia's most trusted politician and that he would have likely been the frontrunner in the election had he chosen to present himself as a candidate.[24]

Foreign policy

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Kiska supports Kosovar independence and is in favour of Slovakia diplomatically recognising Kosovo as an independent sovereign state.[25][26]

Post-presidency

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In 2019, Kiska founded the Za Ľudí party.[27] Despite being a co-favourite candidate for premiership, the party barely entered parliament trespassing the electoral threshold by mere 0.77% of votes in February 2020 election.[28] By August, announced his retirement from active politics citing personal and health reasons.[29]

Kiska has spoken out against Russia over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and supports sanctions against them.[30][31][32][33]

In 2023 Slovak parliamentary election, Kiska endorsed and supported SaS, which ran a group of former Za Ľudí candidates, including former Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková, following an intra-party split with Kiska's successor as ZĽ leader Veronika Remišová.[34]

Personal life

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Kiska was married to Mária Kisková [sk], an educator and politician from 1983 until 2001. They had two children, Andrej Kiska (born 1986) and Natália Kisková (born 1991).[35] The couple divorced in 2001 after 18 years of marriage.[citation needed]

In 2003, Kiska married his second wife, Martina Kisková. The couple have three children, a daughter and two sons namely Veronika (born 2004), Viktor (born 2009), and Martin (born July 2017), during his presidency.[35]

Honours and awards

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Foreign honours

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References

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  1. ^ "Slovak PM Fico, political novice advance to run-off presidential vote". Reuters. United Kingdom. 16 March 2024. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Slováci volí prezidenta. Fica ohrožuje filantrop Kiska". Týden (in Czech). Empresa Media. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  3. ^ "Kandidát na prezidenta Andrej Kiska: Najvyšším zmyslom života je pomáhať druhým!". Topky.sk (in Slovak). 27 January 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  4. ^ Chorvatovič, Marek; Piško, Michal. "Podnikateľ, filantrop a už aj prezident. Andrej Kiska". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press.
  5. ^ ""Goral na gory!", alebo Tatry po goralsky". Obec Kolačkov (in Slovak). Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  6. ^ "Novým slovenským prezidentem bude Andrej Kiska". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Borgis. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Andrej Kiska - životopis". Databaze Knih (in Czech). Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  8. ^ "Hire-purchase definition". Investopedia. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Kiska sklamal Transparency: Výhovorky, mal prijať zodpovednosť a ospravedlniť sa". Hospodárske noviny (in Slovak). 12 September 2017.
  10. ^ Cuprik, Roman (12 September 2017). "Kiska: Bol som presvedčený, že firma koná správne". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press.
  11. ^ "Otázky a odpovede: V čom spočíva trestná činnosť v kauze Kiskovej firmy?". Pravda (in Slovak). 13 September 2017.
  12. ^ "Kiska bez svätožiary". Pravda (in Slovak). 16 September 2017.
  13. ^ "Kiska je pred súdom. Prokurátor podal obžalobu pre zločin daňového podvodu". TA3 (in Slovak). 29 June 2023.
  14. ^ "Court in Slovakia upholds tax fraud verdict against former President Kiska". Associated Press. 31 October 2024.
  15. ^ "Former Slovak President Andrej Kiska loses pension after fraud conviction". Associated Press. 15 November 2024.
  16. ^ Cuprik, Roman (14 September 2017). "Tlak na Kisku sa stupňuje, unikli ďalšie dokumenty". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press.
  17. ^ "Kisku vyšetrovala polícia pre výdavky na kampaň, prezident reagoval na obvinenie". Hospodárske noviny (in Slovak). 12 September 2017.
  18. ^ "Čo je systém Dobrý anjel?". Dobrý Angel (in Slovak). Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  19. ^ "Zoznam Dobrých anjelov". Dobrý anjel (in Slovak). 1 March 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  20. ^ "Dobrý Anděl, nadace". Dobrý Anděl. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  21. ^ "Millionaire Andrej Kiska elected first Slovak president with no communist past". The Daily Telegraph. 30 March 2014.
  22. ^ "Andrej Kiska inaugurated as Slovakian president". Europe Online Magazine. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  23. ^ Praus, Lucia. "Kiska nebude kandidovať na prezidenta". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  24. ^ a b "EU to Lose Key Ally in Slovakia as President Won't Seek New Term". Bloomberg News. 15 May 2018.
  25. ^ "Milioner na čelu Slovačke". B92 (in Serbian). 30 March 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  26. ^ Schmidt, Hans-Jörg (30 March 2014). "Parteiloser Millionär wird slowakischer Präsident". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  27. ^ Mikušovič, Dušan (1 June 2019). "Kiska spustil bilbordovú predkampaň na svoju stranu. Má slogan "Vráťme Slovensko všetkým ľuďom"". Denník N (in Slovak). N Press.
  28. ^ "The Election to the National Council of the Slovak Republic: Summary Results". volby.statistics.sk. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  29. ^ Mikušovič, Dušan (8 August 2020). "Kiska končí. Z politiky odchádza človek, ktorý ako prvý porazil Fica – a ten sa mu odplatil vojnou". Denník N (in Slovak). N Press. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  30. ^ "Slovak president rejects PM's negative view of Russian sanctions". The Prague Post. 15 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  31. ^ Rousek, Leoš (4 February 2015). "Slovak President Kiska: EU Must Stand United on Russia". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  32. ^ "Slovakian President Andrej Kiska meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg". Ukraine News Today. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  33. ^ "President will not go to Moscow". The Slovak Spectator. Petit Press. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  34. ^ "Kiska prezradil, komu vo voľbách odovzdá hlas. Strana, ktorú sám založil, to nebude". Štandard (in Slovak). Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  35. ^ a b "President Kiska has a new baby son". The Slovak Spectator. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  36. ^ a b c d "Pellegrini už má vyznamenania. Stratil by ich len v prípade odsúdenia". Sme (in Slovak). Petit Press. 15 June 2024.
  37. ^ "Vabariigi President". President of Estonia. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019.
  38. ^ "Bürgerrechtspreis 2019". dokuzentrum.sintiundroma.de (in German). Retrieved 14 September 2024.
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Political offices
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2014–2019 		Succeeded by
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