Zuzana Mistríková

“On Saturday, Sunday there were elections, I had the state exam on Monday. I suddenly graduated from college and my political career. We knew it would not end up well, we must say that it turned out to be totally fatal, we really didn't think it would turn out so bad. But there was one strange calculating-Czechoslovak model because it was quite clear that after the election of '92 Václav Klaus would no longer be the Minister of Finance; just the prime minister, that was clear. Thus, suddenly there was a problem in the puzzle, that the president should be from Slovakia. And in the coalition debates of all subjects, which we tried to lead according to November rules and goals, and it seemed for a while, that Martin Porubjak could be the president, and we laughed so badly because I was working for him at the Government Office, and I was terrified of the idea of moving to Prague or something... however absurd it sounds today, it was at one point a relevant option. But the election solved it gracefully and solved it so, that at that moment was ... We all thought it would be only possible to solve it through a referendum, even including Meciar until the last moment claimed it could only be solved through a referendum. We all knew that the referendum wouldn’t turn out so well, we knew it would be terribly complicated federally to put together a unit, which should be capable of deciding or eventually coordinate decision on the national level. But we knew the ruling garniture will do everything to cut these attempts off, and they did it in the end.“

“I confess that I found myself somehow by accident in the middle of these. I was one of the few people who coordinated it on the spot, and then I went into the first television debate, it was strange how I became the person appearing in the media. It was also a coincidence because at the end of the week if I remember correctly, there was an offer from Austrian television to show up, a student and someone from VPN at Zwei Club, a reputable ORF talk show and I was supposed to go there with Peter Zaca. I studied German at that time and he is an excellent translator from German. As we declared the occupation strike, we were not going home anymore, so it was magical because I called my mom that someone would stop for my passport because a visa was still needed. We were given both visas during the afternoon and then the news came that Slovak Television would make a discussion club into which they would let the other party, and so I just went in for the debate for students. And this is that first photo of Kňažko with Budaj sitting there and Ondruš with Kusý and me, and on the other side were some business directors and I did not know those "fatcats'' at all, because I was not interested then, so I had no idea who is who. It turned out quite well, the adults expected I would panic when they asked me questions, but when they realized I somehow made it, they relaxed. And thus I became the communicator with the media, so I had the much-wanted function of press spokesperson without at least fighting for it. Everything was just a coincidence after coincidence.”