Vocal government critic and anti-corruption advocate Zuzana Caputova is to become Slovakia’s first female president after provisional results showed her winning Saturday’s run-off election.
Environmental lawyer Caputova got 58.40 percent of the ballot, while EU energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic garnered 41.59 percent, the Slovak Statistics Office said.
“Let us look for what connects us. Let us promote cooperation above personal interests,” Caputova said after her victory.
Photo: Reuters
The outcome was a sign that “you can win without attacking your opponents,” the 45-year-old added. “I believe this trend will also be confirmed in the elections to the European Parliament and the Slovak parliamentary elections next year.”
Sefcovic, the 52-year-old ruling party candidate, called Caputova to congratulate her and planned to also send flowers.
“The first female president of Slovakia deserves a bouquet,” he told reporters.
Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who belongs to the ruling Smer-SD party, said he expected “constructive cooperation.”
Outgoing Slovak President Andrej Kiska told reporters that “Slovakia is in a moral crisis and needs a president like Zuzana Caputova.”
“Many countries probably envy us for we have chosen a president who symbolizes values like decency,” he said.
Political novice Caputova, who ran on a slogan of “Stand up to evil,” had earlier called the past few weeks “extremely challenging” and “an intense journey.”
No stranger to tough battles, Caputova won a 2016 award for successfully blocking a planned landfill in her hometown of Pezinok.
More recently, she took to the streets of the central European country of 5.4 million along with tens of thousands of other anti-government protesters after investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was gunned down alongside his fiancee in February last year.
Speaking to reporters on the campaign trail, Caputova said she would “initiate systematic changes that would deprive prosecutors and the police of political influence.”
In addition to fighting for justice for all, Caputova has promised better care for the elderly and environmental protection.
Earlier last week, she won an endorsement from Jozef Kuciak, the slain journalist’s brother, who denounced Sefcovic for his ties to the political establishment.
“I will not vote for someone supported by oligarchs and their people who have deprived me of my brother and sister-in-law,” he said.
Observers have compared Caputova to French President Emmanuel Macron, an outsider who swept to power on a reformist agenda.
“A similar story unfolded during the last presidential election in France, where the representative of the new political trend and a new political movement prevailed,” analyst Aneta Vilagi said.
However, analyst Juraj Marusiak said that both “their programs were formulated within vague contours, so they can also bring great disappointment.”
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