Kiska's Car Had Tyre Trouble En Route to Poprad

Ihlany, April 7 (TASR) – Instead of an airplane operated by the Interior Ministry, President Andrej Kiska used a car to get to his home town of Poprad (Presov region) on Thursday.

Or rather, two cars, as the trip didn’t go without a hitch.

Kiska’s vehicle experienced tyre trouble halfway through the journey, prompting an impromptu ‘pit stop’ in Banska Bystrica. Eventually, the president had to switch to a back-up car in Ivachnova (Zilina region).

“I’ve made the trip from Bratislava to Poprad more than a thousand times. I’ve been through worse before though, such as when it was freezing and snowing, and the trip yesterday didn’t really go swimmingly either. In addition to traffic jams, we experienced problems with the car. We tried to fix it, but then we switched to another one,” said the president about his journey, which took around five hours.

“Cars break down. As president, I’m lucky enough to have a back-up car ready that I can switch to so as to make sure that I arrive in time,” said Kiska.

He said that one of the rear tyres was penetrated by a screw, causing it to deflate slowly.

Turning to the controversy surrounding his use of government aircraft for private trips, Kiska reiterated his earlier statement that he will heed a request made by the Interior Ministry and will seek to keep his airplane use to a minimum.