Caputova emerges Slovakia’s 1st female President

&NewLine;<p><br> In a keenly contested presidential election in Slovakia&comma; a country located in central Europe&comma; and bordered by Czech Republic&comma; Austria&comma; Poland&comma; Ukraine&comma; and Hungary&comma; liberal lawyer&comma; Zuzana Caputova has won the election&period; Her victory was officially announced on Saturday&comma; March 30&comma; 2019&period;<br> During the campaign&comma; she rod on a wave of public fury over corruption&comma; &comma; bucking a trend that has seen populist&comma; anti-European Union politicians make gains across the continent&period;<br> Corruption and change in political style were the main themes ahead of the run-off vote&comma; which took place a year after journalist Jan Kuciak&comma; who investigated high-profile fraud cases&comma; and his fiancée was murdered at their home&period;<br> According to Reuters Caputova&comma; a pro-EU political novice who will be the eurozone country’s first female president&comma; had 58&period;3 percent of the votes after results from 98&period;1 percent of voting districts were counted&comma; ahead of European commissioner Maros Sefcovic who took 41&period;7 percent&period;<br> Sefcovic&comma; a respected diplomat who is also pro-EU&comma; is backed by the ruling party Smer&comma; the largest grouping in parliament that has dominated Slovak politics since 2006&period;<br> Caputova&comma; who was the front runner having won the first round more than 20 percentage points ahead of Sefcovic&comma; campaigned to end what she calls the capture of the state &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;by people pulling strings from behind”&comma; a message that opinion polls show resonates with younger&comma; educated voters&period;<br> The 45-year old member of a liberal non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia party which she pledged to leave if elected has been endorsed by opposition parties and a junior party in the ruling coalition that represents the ethnic Hungarian minority&comma; as well as outgoing President Andrej Kiska&period;<br> Caputova started her acceptance speech by thanking voters in Slovak&comma; as well as in the Hungarian&comma; Czech&comma; Roma and Ruthenian languages&comma; turning to all main minority groups&period;<br> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am happy not just for the result but mainly that it is possible not to succumb to populism&comma; to tell the truth&comma; to raise interest without aggressive vocabulary&comma;” she told a crowd of supporters&period;<br> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This started in the local election last year&comma; was confirmed in the presidential election&comma; and I believe the European &lpar;parliamentary election in May&rpar; will confirm it as well&period;”<br> With a population of 5&period;4 million&comma; the Slovak Republic has a small&comma; open economy driven mainly by automobile and electronics exports&comma; which account for more than 80&percnt; of GDP&period; <br> Slovakia joined the EU in 2004 and the euro zone in 2009&period; The country&&num;8217&semi;s banking sector is sound and predominantly foreign owned&period;<br> The country was officially formed in 1993&comma; when the Czechoslovakia dissolved following the collapse of the Soviet Union&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;