Rudolf Schuster

Who is Rudolf Schuster?

Rudolf Schuster is a former President of Slovakia. He was elected on 29 May 1999 and inaugurated on 15 June. Schuster served as the second president of the Slovak Republic. In the presidential elections of April 2004, where he sought re-election Schuster was defeated. He received only 7.4% of the vote, with three other candidates receiving more than that. He was succeeded by Ivan Gašparovič.

From 1964 to 1990, Schuster was a member of the Communist Party of Slovakia. Before becoming president, he was a mayor of Košice in 1983–1986 and 1994–1999 respectively. He was also the last Communist president of the Slovak National Council, an ambassador of Czechoslovakia in Canada and a leader of the Party of Civic Understanding.

He speaks Slovak, German, 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 to Irena Schusterová and he has two children and two granddaughters. In his private life, he is a sports fan, a traveller and a writer. He is also a camera fan.