Memorial Page for Michal Kováč

Michal Kováč (born 5 August 1930 in Ľubiša; died 5 October 2016 in Bratislava) was a Slovak economist, banking specialist and politician. From 1993 to 1998 he served as the first president of the independent Slovak Republic. His term fell in the difficult opening phase of the new state and was marked by strong conflicts with Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar.

Banking and reforms

Kováč studied economics in Bratislava and worked for many years in banking. He served in the Czechoslovak State Bank, taught for a time in Cuba and worked in the London branch of Živnostenská banka. In the 1960s he belonged to the specialists who supported reform of the Czechoslovak banking system. After the end of the Prague Spring, he was politically downgraded and worked again in less influential positions.

Politics after 1989

After the Velvet Revolution, Kováč returned to public politics. He became finance minister of the Slovak Republic and helped reshape the banking and economic system. In 1992 he chaired the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia at a time when the dissolution of the common state was being prepared. This transition placed him in a central role between the old federation and new Slovak statehood.

First president of Slovakia

On 15 February 1993 Kováč was elected by the National Council as the first president of independent Slovakia; on 2 March he took office. He came from the environment of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, but increasingly distanced himself from Vladimír Mečiar's politics. Kováč understood the presidency as a nonpartisan institution and therefore entered into open conflict with the government.

Conflict over democracy and rule of law

The years from 1993 to 1998 were a period of self-definition for Slovakia. Kováč stood for a pluralistic, European-oriented democracy, while Mečiar's government was internationally criticised for authoritarian tendencies. Especially serious was the abduction of Kováč's son to Austria in 1995, an affair long connected with the Slovak intelligence service and the political crisis of the 1990s. Kováč's presidency thereby became a symbol of institutional resistance to concentration of power.

Later years

After the end of his term, Kováč largely withdrew from day-to-day politics, but remained an important figure in Slovak memory of the first years of independence. Later presidents and politicians honoured him as a man who held to the democratic character of the state in an uncertain time. His role is therefore understood not only through formal offices, but through the dispute over the direction of the young republic.

Farewell

Michal Kováč died in Bratislava on 5 October 2016. He was 86 years old. Slovakia bade him farewell with a state funeral. His name remains connected with the beginning of the modern Slovak presidency and with the question of how a new state protects democratic institutions.