Andrej Kiska


Andrej Kiska 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. Kiska declined to run for a second term in 2019. He has written two books about happiness, success, and his life.

Early life

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

Career

Kiska moved to the United States in 1990, one year after the Velvet Revolution. He later founded Triangel and Quatro, 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.

Philanthropy

In 2006, Kiska co-founded a non-profit charitable organization called Dobrý anjel. By 2016, more than 170,000 people have donated to this organization in Slovakia. Good Angel expanded their activities also to Czech Republic in 2014, where 60.000 are paying their monthly contributions in 2016.

Tax non-compliance and legal problems

Tax authorities accused his co-owned company KTAG of tax non-compliance and under-payments, regarding expenses for his presidential campaign. The company eventually agreed to pay the taxes and a penalty.
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. Process against Kiska and his business partner from KTAG s.r.o. Eduard Kučkovský commenced in June 2023 at District Court in Poprad. He was convicted and sentenced to a two-years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros.
In 2024, the fine was cancelled while the prison term was reduced to one following an appeal. The conviction resulted in the cancellation of his pension by the Slovak presidential office. Andrej Kiska responded that the verdict was the result of threats made by Robert Fico. “Fico threatens inconvenient judges with disciplinary proceedings, and fear has spread among the judiciary. I can’t explain today’s decision of the Regional Court any other way” … “I will not stop fighting to clear my name until the truth is revealed, and we are filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.”
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.

President of Slovakia (2014–2019)

In the first round of the 2014 Slovak presidential election, Kiska placed second with 24% of the vote, behind Prime Minister Robert Fico. 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. He took office on 15 June.
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. 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.

Foreign policy

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

Post-presidency

In 2019, Kiska founded the Za Ľudí party. 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. By August, announced his retirement from active politics citing personal and health reasons.
Kiska has spoken out against Russia over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and supports sanctions against them.
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.

Personal life

Kiska was married to, an educator and politician from 1983 until 2001. They had two children, Andrej Kiska and Natália Kisková. The couple divorced in 2001 after 18 years of marriage.
In 2003, Kiska married his second wife, Martina Kisková. The couple have three children, a daughter and two sons namely Veronika, Viktor, and Martin, during his presidency.

Honours and awards