VOCAL GOVERNMENT CRITIC and anti-corruption activist Zuzana Caputova will become Slovakia’s first female president after provisional results showed her winning yesterday’s run-off election.

Environmental lawyer Caputova got 58.40% of the ballot while EU energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic garnered 41.59%, the Slovak Statistics Office said. Official results are due today at noon.

“Let us look for what connects us. Let us promote cooperation above personal interests,” Caputova said after her victory.

The 45-year-old added that the outcome was a sign that “you can win without attacking your opponents”.

“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.  

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who belongs to the governing Smer-SD party, said he expected “constructive cooperation”. 

Outgoing 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 symbolises values like decency.”