Michal Kováč Biography

Michal Kovac is a former Slovakian politician who assumed office as the country’s first president when the position was newly created by the constitution of Slovakia in 1993 when Slovakia permanently split from Czechoslovakia and became a separate country. The position which had been lying vacant for the initial few weeks of its establishment was filled by Kovac who was elected as the president by the National Council of Slovak Republic. He had been the last Speaker of Czechoslovakia's federal Parliament before the country split peacefully into Czech and Slovak states in January 1993. A former banker who had worked at a number of famous banks before venturing into politics, Kovac brought with him a rich legacy of knowledge and experience relating to financial and economic issues. Prior to his election as the first President of Slovakia, he had served as the Chairman of the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. He was one of the founders of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia in the early 1990s and had played a significant role in the process of the preparation of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. He had strained relations with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Vladimír Mečiar, which only worsened after his becoming the president