Zuzana Caputova becomes #Slovakia's first female president

Anti-corruption candidate Zuzana Caputova has won Slovakia's presidential election, making her the country's first female head of state.Ms Caputova, who has almost no political experience, defeated high-profile diplomat Maros Sefcovic, nominated by the governing party, in a second round run-off vote on Saturday.

She framed the election as a struggle between good and evil. The election follows the murder of an investigative journalist last year.

Jan Kuciak was looking into links between politicians and organised crime when he was shot at home alongside his fiancée in February 2018.

Ms Caputova cited Mr Kuciak's murder as one of the reasons she decided to run for president, which is a largely ceremonial role.

She won 58% of the vote, with Mr Sefcovic trailing on 42%.

Her opponent was nominated by the ruling Smer-SD party, which is led by Robert Fico, who was forced to resign as prime minister following the killings.

Ms Caputova gained national prominence as a lawyer when she led a case against an illegal landfill lasting 14 years.

Zuzana Čaputová’s chief election strategist, Michal Repa of Shaviv Strategy and Campaigns, said
“At the start of the campaign, Zuzana Čaputová was a largely unknown liberal candidate in a highly conservative, polarized and populist political environment.

Through focus groups and polling we discovered that, regardless of any policy disagreements, voters from both sides of the political divide were united by their utter distrust of politicians and their rejection of the grave injustices that overshadowed Slovak society.

Zuzana´s honesty, authenticity, her natural charisma and strong record as an activist against injustice, answered voters’ yearning for an honest and reliable candidate who would fight injustice. So much so, that they were willing to overlook their policy differences. Social media allowed her to rise above all politics-as-usual and demonstrate that populism can be defeated in today’s Europe”.

Michal Repa also served as chief election strategist for Matúš Vallo - another largely unknown, liberal candidate who recently won a landslide victory for the office of Mayor of Bratislava. At the start of the campaign, Vallo was polling at 4% in terms of name-recognition and zero voting intentions. He won the Mayoral race with 36.54% of the vote.

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