Andrej Kiska

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.

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
Leader of the For the People
In office
28 September 2019 – 8 August 2020
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byVeronika Remišová
Personal details
Born (1963-02-02) 2 February 1963
Poprad, Czechoslovakia
(now Slovakia)
Political partyZa ľudí (2019–2020)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (2014–2019)
Spouse(s)
Mária Kisková
​
​
(m. 1985; div. 2001)​

​
(m. 2001)​
Children5
Alma materSlovak University of
Technology
WebsiteOfficial website

Biography

Early and personal life

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 was married to Mária Kisková, an educator and politician from 1985 until 2001. They had two children, Andrej Kiska (1986) and Natália Kisková (1990).[5] The couple divorced in 2001 after 18 years of marriage.

Kiska married his second wife, Martina Kisková, in 2003. The couple have three children- - Veronika (born 2005), Viktor (born 2009), and Martin (born July 2017 during his presidency).[5]

He is an ethnic Goral.[6]

Career

In 1990, after the Velvet Revolution, he moved to the United States.[7] Later he founded Triangel and Quatro,[8] 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.[9]

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.[10][11]

Andrej 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.[12][13] Process against Kiska and his business partner from KTAG s.r.o. Eduard Kučkovský commenced in June 2023 at District Court in Poprad. No verdict was reached yet.[14]

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.[10][15][16]

Philanthropy

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).[8][17] By 2016, more than 170,000 people have donated to this organization in Slovakia.[18] In 2014 Good Angel expanded their activities also to Czech Republic, where 60.000 are paying their monthly contributions in 2016.[19] In addition to that, Kiska donates his monthly presidential salary to people in need.

Presidency
Kiska (right) with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 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 runoff 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.[20] He took office on 15 June 2014.[21]

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.[22][23] 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.[23]

Foreign policy

Kiska supports Kosovo independence and is in favour of Slovakia diplomatically recognising Kosovo as an independent sovereign state.[24][25]

Post-presidency

In 2019, Kiska founded the Za Ľudí party.[26] Despite being co-favourited for premiership, the party barely entered parliament trespassing the electoral threshold by mere 0.77% of votes in February 2020 election.[27] By August he announced his retirement from active politics citing personal and health reasons.[28]

Kiska has spoken out against Russia over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and supports sanctions against them.[29][30][31][32]

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.[33]

Honours and awards

Foreign honours

References
  1. "Slovak PM Fico, political novice advance to run-off presidential vote". Reuters. 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  2. "Slováci volí prezidenta. Fica ohrožuje filantrop Kiska" (in Czech). Týden. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  3. "Kandidát na prezidenta Andrej Kiska: Najvyšším zmyslom života je pomáhať druhým!" (in Slovak). Topky.sk. 27 January 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  4. a.s, Petit Press. "Podnikateľ, filantrop a už aj prezident. Andrej Kiska". domov.sme.sk.
  5. "President Kiska has a new baby son". The Slovak Spectator. 2017-07-10. Archived from the original on 2014-11-17. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  6. webex.sk. ""Goral na gory!", alebo Tatry po goralsky | Obec Kolačkov | Oficiálne stránky obce". Obec Kolačkov (in Slovak). Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  7. "Novým slovenským prezidentem bude Andrej Kiska" (in Czech). novinky.cz. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  8. "Andrej Kiska - životopis" (in Slovak). DatabazeKnih. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  9. "Hire-purchase definition". Investopedia. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  10. "Kiska sklamal Transparency: Výhovorky, mal prijať zodpovednosť a ospravedlniť sa". slovensko.hnonline.sk.
  11. a.s, Petit Press. "Kiska: Bol som presvedčený, že firma koná správne". domov.sme.sk.
  12. "Otázky a odpovede: V čom spočíva trestná činnosť v kauze Kiskovej firmy?". Pravda.sk. September 13, 2017.
  13. "Kiska bez svätožiary". Pravda.sk. September 16, 2017.
  14. TA3 (2023-06-29). "Kiska je pred súdom. Prokurátor podal obžalobu pre zločin daňového podvodu". TA3 (in Slovak). Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  15. a.s, Petit Press. "Tlak na Kisku sa stupňuje, unikli ďalšie dokumenty". domov.sme.sk.
  16. "Kisku vyšetrovala polícia pre výdavky na kampaň, prezident reagoval na obvinenie". slovensko.hnonline.sk.
  17. "Čo je systém Dobrý anjel" (in Slovak). Dobrý anjel. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  18. "Zoznam Dobrých anjelov" (in Slovak). Dobrý anjel. March 1, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  19. "DOBRÝ ANDĚL, nadace". DOBRÝ ANDĚL. Retrieved 2016-08-09.
  20. "Millionaire Andrej Kiska elected first Slovak president with no communist past", Telegraph Online, 30 March 2014, accessed 30 March 2014.
  21. "Andrej Kiska inaugurated as Slovakian president". Europe Online Magazine. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  22. "Kiska nebude kandidovať na prezidenta". domov.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  23. "EU to Lose Key Ally in Slovakia as President Won't Seek New Term". Bloomberg.com. 2018-05-15. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  24. "Milioner na čelu Slovačke". B92. 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  25. "Parteiloser Millionär wird slowakischer Präsident". Die Welt. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  26. Mikušovič, Dušan (June 1, 2019). "Kiska spustil bilbordovú predkampaň na svoju stranu. Má slogan "Vráťme Slovensko všetkým ľuďom"". Denník N.
  27. "The Election to the National Council of the Slovak Republic – Summary Results". volby.statistics.sk. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  28. Mikušovič, Dušan (2020-08-08). "Kiska končí. Z politiky odchádza človek, ktorý ako prvý porazil Fica – a ten sa mu odplatil vojnou". Denník N (in Slovak). Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  29. "Slovak president rejects PM's negative view of Russian sanctions". The Prague Post. 2014-08-15. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  30. "Slovak President Kiska: EU Must Stand United on Russia". The Wall Street Journal. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  31. "Slovakian President Andrej Kiska meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg". Ukraine Today. 2015-03-03. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  32. "President will not go to Moscow". The Slovak Spectator. 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  33. "Kiska prezradil, komu vo voľbách odovzdá hlas. Strana, ktorú sám založil, to nebude". Štandard (in Slovak). Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  34. "Vabariigi President". www.president.ee.
  35. "Bürgerrechtspreis 2019".
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