Rudolf Schuster

Rudolf Schuster (born 4 January 1934) is a Slovak politician who served as the second president of Slovakia from 1999 to 2004. He was elected on 29 May 1999 and inaugurated on 15 June. In the presidential elections of April 2004, in which he sought re-election, Schuster was defeated. He received only 7.4% of the vote, with three other candidates (more specifically Ivan Gašparovič, Vladimír Mečiar, and Eduard Kukan) receiving more than that. He was succeeded by Ivan Gašparovič.

Life and career

Schuster was born in Košice. From 1964 to 1990, he was a member of the Communist Party of Slovakia. Before becoming president, he was mayor of Košice in 1983–1986 and 1994–1999 respectively. He was also the last Communist president of the Slovak National Council (1989–1990), Ambassador of Czechoslovakia to Canada (1990–1992) and a leader of the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP – Strana občianskeho porozumenia, 1998–1999).

Schuster speaks German (including Mantak dialect), Slovak, Czech, Russian, English and Hungarian fluently.

Schuster's father's family is of Carpathian German origin, while his mother's family is of Hungarian origin. Rudolf Schuster was married in 1961 to Irena Trojáková (died 2008) and he has two children (son Peter and daughter Ingrid) and two granddaughters. In his private life, he is a sports fan, a traveller and a writer. He is also a camera fan.

In 1998, Schuster founded the centre-left Party of Civic Understanding. In 1999, he received honorary citizenship from Miskolc, as recognition of the good cooperation between the city and Košice during his mayorship.

In 2004, Schuster sought re-election in the 2004 presidential election and received 7.4% of the votes.

Writing

Rudolf Schuster is a member of the Association of Slovak Writers. He has been the author of film scripts for various television films. His most famous works are detective novels and travelogues mainly about Brazil and Canada.

Bibliography

• Necestami Brazílie (1987)
• Prípad „Puntičkár“ (1987)
• Nežiaduci dôkaz (1988)
• Čierny notes (1989) – ISBN 80-85110-09-1
• Bol som pri tom (1989)
• Rodné putá: J. Fabini (1994) – ISBN 8085727129
• So skalpelom a bez neho (1994) – ISBN 80-85727-13-7
• Stopy viedli k Indiánom (1995) – ISBN 80-967412-1-7
• Strieborný mercedes (1995) – ISBN 80-85727-14-5
• Ultimátum (1996) – ISBN 80-967412-2-5
• Hlavná (1997) – ISBN 80-967412-4-1
• Návrat do veľkej politiky (1998) – ISBN 80-968272-0-0
• Explózia (1999) – ISBN 80-967412-7-6
• Ako to bolo (2000)
• Rozhovory s Milanom Čičom (2001) – ISBN 80-968272-7-8
• Muž s dvoma srdcami (2001) – ISBN 80-968272-5-1
• V tieni brazilských pralesov (2002) – ISBN 80-890840-5-2
• Farby Islandu (2009) – ISBN 978-80-89084-23-4
• V krajine ľadových medveďov (2010) – ISBN 978-80-89084-29-6
• Deň na južnom póle (2011) – ISBN 978-80-89084-35-7
• Kanada, od mora k moru / Canada, From Sea to Sea (2014) – ISBN 978-80-89084-38-8

Honours and awards

National honours

Foreign honours

External links