Eurolanche

Stastny: The next president of Slovakia?

Former Quebec Nordiques star and one of the best hockey players in the history, Peter Stastny, confirmed he considers his candidacy for the next year presidential elections in Slovakia. Stastny commented on his potential candidacy for the first time, just few weeks after the fan group on Facebook supporting his candidacy was established.

“I do not exclude this option,” said Stastny to the Slovak state news agency TASR. He added he is thinking about the candidacy to the presidential elections in Slovakia held in 2013. It would be not first Stastny´s experience in the politics. He has been a member and a long time supporter of the Slovak strongest right party SDKU-DS. Stastny represented his party at the prestige position as the member of European parliament from 2004 to 2009. He has continued at the same post for the second term since 2009 for the next five years.

In Slovakia, Stastny is also famous for his open conflicts with the former president of the Slovak ice hockey federation and one of the richest businessmen in Slovakia, Juraj Siroky. Stastny had been a general manager of the Slovak national team. When he was fired, he has started the conflict with Siroky. Stastny points on Siroky´s controversial past and the current business activities. Siroky, according the archives, was an agent of the secret police during the communism era in Slovakia until 1989. He is the owner of the Slovak most successful team and the KHL member HC Slovan Bratislava. Paradoxically, Stastny and his brothers fled from Slovakia to Canada in 80´s due the regime. The second paradox is that Stastny started his career in Slovan. When the conflict between Stastny and Siroky has broken, Stastny resigned from the Slovakian Hall of Fame and asked to remove all references to his career in Slovan in their arena, including his retired jersey. At the other side, when Stastny was at the GM position in the Slovak national team, he had no problem with Siroky.

Peter Stasny played in 10 seasons for Quebec Nordiques and continued for four seasons for New Jersey Devils and two for St. Louis Blues. He has become the first NHL player who collected 100 points in his rookie season. He was also successful player at the international level and represented three countries – Czechoslovakia, Canada and Slovakia. His younger, Paul, plays for the Colorado Avalanche.

Eurolanche met with Peter Stastny for two times. Firstly, we attended the summer event in Slovakia in 2009, where also Paul was. Secondly, we did a short interview with Peter at the press conference, which was attended also by the former leader of SDKU-DS and former prime minister of Slovakia, who said he supports the Avalanche hockey.