Ever since the 1989 Color Revolutions, Eastern Europe has towed the line between authoritarianism and democracy. Since the early 1990s, emigration from many of the former Soviet Republics has risen steadily. In 2016, Eastern Europe had the largest population loss in modern history, including symbolic placings of shoes in southern European capitals to symbolize family that have left for western capitals, especially the United States. This is why it is so important that in Slovakia there has been a historic election – the youngest and first female President in the country’s history, Zuzana Caputova, had just been elected, after defeating her experienced rival Maros Sefcovic in the Presidential Elections. The election follows the murder of an investigative journalist last year, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancé.
Raised in Pezinok, a town in wine-growing country half an hour out of the capital city, Bratislava, Caputova made a known for herself by campaigning against a toxic waste dump in her city. Her campaign was notable in part because by the end of it, half of all of the political contributions that she had received came from small donors. Her election breaks the long role of the SMSD (Direction – Social Democracy Party). As a political outsider, she has more of a claim to speak for others than her predecessors. As the first female President, Ms. Caputova has the opportunity to make groundbreaking change in the field of women’s rights and other arenas, such as LGBTQ rights. Foreign Policy magazine compared her to Vaclav Havel, the playwright dissident who became Czechoslovakia’s first president.. As a political candidate, Caputova vowed to return a sense of decency to the toxic political environment. And she brings a new sense of legitimacy to a country that in 1989, was still behind the Iron Curtain. In fact, some studies show that just seeing a woman in power causes girls to be more confident to get activated in politics, local government, and university senates. Caputova stands in stark contrast to international figures such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic, who have promised their constituents that they will run illiberal campaigns. One of her campaign promises: “We are your servant, we will solve this together”. Caputova brings a change in direction to Eastern Europe, a region in which the vast majority of leaders are authoritarian and right-wing, even far-right.
There is good reason to believe that Slovakia will move in a better direction under Ms. Caputova. The key to reform, however, will be finding some sort of common ground with the other major parties which make up Slovakia’s parliamentary democracy.
Charles Moxley
Charles, a staff writer at “In the Zeitgeist”, is a senior at NYU majoring in Politics and minoring in French. Born and raised in New York City, Charles hopes to have a career in economics and management consulting. Charles has interned at a variety of outfits, including