A liberal candidate with a strong anti-corruption programme Zuzana Čaputová has won Slovakia’s presidential election, becoming the country’s first woman president of Slovakia.
Zuzana Čaputová entered the final presidential voting after winning the first round with 40,57% of all votes. In the morning of 31st of March 2019, when the last votes were counted it was clear, that Čaputová has won the entire election with 58,4% against her sole opponent, Maroš Štefčovič, who received 41,59% of valid votes. The turnout of voters has declined a bit between the first round (48,74% of all eligible voters) and the second round (41,8%), making it the lowest in Slovakia’s history of the presidential election since 1999 (vysledkyvolieb.sk).
Looking at the map of Čaputová’s voters’ support in Slovakia, there are regions with higher and lower percentages. For example, the highest support showed voters in the capital city of Bratislava (73,74%) and Trnava region (65,68). On the other hand, the lowest support (48,96%) she received was from Prešov region, located at North-east border of Slovakia. This region is also the only one, where she didn’t win a majority of the votes (above 50%) (irozhlas.cz).
As we are interested in attitudes of Slovak leaders towards issues of sexual citizenship, we provide an excerpt of a transcript from an interview for DVTV (Aktuálně.cz) in which Zuzana Čaputová responded to a direct question on her attitudes toward gay adoptions and registered partnerships.
This is an unofficial transcript by Queer Geography from a video-interview by DVTV (Aktuálně.cz) dated 27 February 2019 (from 20 minute 01 seconds):
Emma Smetana (reporter): You as a liberal, for example, support homosexual adoptions, registered partnerships, you have strongly accentuated the environmental issues here, do you believe that the Slovaks are open on these issues, are they progressive?
Zuzana Čaputová (presidential candidate): I do not know, the question of registered partnerships or adoptions by homosexual couples, yes I am a liberal candidate and I have quite the most liberal views on this, it is not an agenda with which I proactively go, but when somebody asks about my personal opinion then I have very openly communicated it, although I believe that it is ideal when a child grows up with his/her biological parents, being raised by two loving parents of the same sex is surely better than institutional care. So, this is my opinion, and I consider it fair for my voters to know what is my value and opinion world like. It is not a topic that I think Slovakia is currently dealing with, it is a legitimate question during the presidential discussions, but I do not think that it is now a priority for Slovakia.