Peter Kresánek (born 1 January 1951 in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

) is a Slovak politician, former member of the Slovak parliament from 1998 to 2002 and former

Mayor of Bratislava The Mayor of Bratislava ( sk, Primátor Bratislavy) is the highest political representative of the Slovak capital Bratislava. The Mayor's office is located in the Primate's Palace. Since 2018 the office has been held by Matúš Vallo, an architect ...

from 1990 to 1998.

Early career

He attended '' SVŠ Vazovova'' in

(1966–1969) and the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

of the

Comenius University Comenius University in Bratislava ( sk, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave) is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is name ...

in Bratislava (1969–1974). His desk was History of art and architecture. He is fluent in English, German and Russian.

Political career

On 16 January 2000 Peter Kresánek was one of the co-founders of Slovak Democratic Christian Movement ( Slovak: ''Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia'' (''SDKÚ'')). Before, he was a member of

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian-democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International. H ...

( Slovak: ''Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie'' (''KDH'')).

Case little trains (Kauza vlaciky)

The case involved the buying of 35 leightweigt motor trains with ties to the

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

Jozef Macejka (SDKU) and the

Prime Minister of Slovakia The prime minister of Slovakia, officially the Chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic ( Slovak: ''Predseda vlády Slovenskej republiky''), commonly referred to in Slovakia as ''Predseda vlády'' or informally as ''Premiér'', is the ...

Mikuláš Dzurinda Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1956) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic a ...

(SDKU). There was a police investigation but no one was charged. At a political level, Prime Minister Dzurinda recalled Jozef Macejka from his post of Minister. A letter written by Peter Kresánek to the Prime Minister of Slovakia at that time

leaked to the public. It contained the legendary line: "Gabo (''note: a very familiar form of Gabriel (Palacka) who was the treasurer of

Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party ( sk, Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia – Demokratická strana, SDKÚ-DS) was a liberal-conservative, Christian-democratic political party in Slovakia. The SDKÚ-DS was a m ...

'') takes the thing alternatively according to the fact that the background is the same for the party." Peter Kresánek was later expelled from his political party SDKU.

Responsibility

As the

Peter Kresánek supervised the sale of city buildings to various (at that time) opposition political parties, including the headquarters of SDĽ and DÚ. For example a similar demand by coalition party SNS was denied. The most scandalous sale was a large building on Žabotova street (today the headquarters of

KDH The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian-democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International. H ...

), which was sold under non-transparent circumstances in 1997 for a fraction of its cost. Analysts from one company (P67 Value) estimated that Mayor Kresánek's additions to the contract alone cost the city 4 million crowns. Kresánek is also politically responsible for bringing the

public transport in Bratislava Public transport in Bratislava is managed by Dopravný podnik Bratislava, a city-owned company. The transport system is known as ''Mestská hromadná doprava'' (MHD, Municipal Mass Transit), and the network is the largest in Slovakia. The history o ...

to the brink of collapse. Despite the city continuing to grow, under his tenure the bus service was reduced for the first time on 18 April 1994. On 5 September 1994 the bus lines were reduced again. The management of public transport under his tenure as

resulted in a situation when in mid-1990s during peak hours it was common for people only being able to squeeze themselves into the second or third bus in a row at some busy bus stops. The undignified conditions in public transport and strong preference of personal transport within the city infrastructure coupled with the new economic freedom caused a surge in personal vehicles in

, creating transport problems for years to come.

Personal

Kresánek is married with his wife Mária and has three children. He lives in Bratislava.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kresanek, Peter 1951 births Living people Mayors of Bratislava Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1998-2002 Comenius University alumni Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party politicians