10-07-2016, 11:24 PM
Michal Kováč (5 August 1930 – 5 October 2016) was the first President of Slovakia, having served from 1993 through 1998.[1]
Kováč was born in the village of Ľubiša in then Czechoslovakia in 1930.[2] He graduated from the present-day University of Economics in Bratislava and was a bank employee of the Státní banka československá and of other banks. As such, he spent some years in London and in Cuba in the 1960s. During the Normalization he was subject to some persecution.
Kováč was elected president by the National Council of Slovakia in February 1993 (because he was a candidate of the biggest parliamentary party—the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia) and inaugurated on 2 March 1993. He soon became a strong opponent of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar and by giving a critical presidential address to parliament in March 1994, Kováč significantly contributed to the deposition of the then Mečiar government and the creation of the Moravčík government (which only lasted until the next parliamentary election in the autumn of 1994).
In 1995 the Mečiar-Kováč conflict intensified and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia cancelled Kováč's (formal) membership in the party. In August 1995 Kováč's son, who had been accused of financial crimes by German authorities (the accusation was later canceled), was apparently kidnapped and taken to Austria. The president, opposition parties and Austrian court accused the Slovak intelligence service (SIS) and the government of having organized this kidnapping. The investigation of new secret intelligence service director Mitro and Slovak police after collapse of Meciar's regime in the end of 1999 confirmed the participation of SIS on this kidnap but the Slovak justice rejected the trial with its suspected actors because of amnesty (also called self-amnesty) issued by Vladimir Meciar on 3 March 1998.
Kováč's term ended on 2 March 1998. His candidature in the first direct Slovak presidential election, 1999 was unsuccessful. He has not been very visible in Slovak politics since this time and has appeared only at a few symbolic events.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michal_Kov%C3%A1%C4%8D
Kováč was born in the village of Ľubiša in then Czechoslovakia in 1930.[2] He graduated from the present-day University of Economics in Bratislava and was a bank employee of the Státní banka československá and of other banks. As such, he spent some years in London and in Cuba in the 1960s. During the Normalization he was subject to some persecution.
Kováč was elected president by the National Council of Slovakia in February 1993 (because he was a candidate of the biggest parliamentary party—the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia) and inaugurated on 2 March 1993. He soon became a strong opponent of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar and by giving a critical presidential address to parliament in March 1994, Kováč significantly contributed to the deposition of the then Mečiar government and the creation of the Moravčík government (which only lasted until the next parliamentary election in the autumn of 1994).
In 1995 the Mečiar-Kováč conflict intensified and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia cancelled Kováč's (formal) membership in the party. In August 1995 Kováč's son, who had been accused of financial crimes by German authorities (the accusation was later canceled), was apparently kidnapped and taken to Austria. The president, opposition parties and Austrian court accused the Slovak intelligence service (SIS) and the government of having organized this kidnapping. The investigation of new secret intelligence service director Mitro and Slovak police after collapse of Meciar's regime in the end of 1999 confirmed the participation of SIS on this kidnap but the Slovak justice rejected the trial with its suspected actors because of amnesty (also called self-amnesty) issued by Vladimir Meciar on 3 March 1998.
Kováč's term ended on 2 March 1998. His candidature in the first direct Slovak presidential election, 1999 was unsuccessful. He has not been very visible in Slovak politics since this time and has appeared only at a few symbolic events.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michal_Kov%C3%A1%C4%8D
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.