Political newcomer Nataša Pirc Musar, a left-liberal lawyer and former data protection commissioner, has been elected president, making her the first woman to hold the position in Slovenia.
Pirc Musar defeated conservative MP Anže Logar with nearly 54% of the vote in a run-off on Sunday. This is the second-lowest margin in a presidential election, and Logar’s is the best result for a conservative candidate to date.
Pirc Musar entered the race as an independent backed by two leftist former presidents before winning the endorsement of Prime Minister Robert Golob and the two largest coalition parties heading into the run-off.
She said in her acceptance speech that her main goal would be to be the president of all Slovenians, bridge political divisions – something she is able to do as a non-partisan candidate – and promote a tolerant dialogue among everyone.
“Diversity makes us rich,” she said, describing Slovenia as “a mosaic of diversity” that has to be nurtured.
In the campaign Pirc Musar, who built on her long record of human rights advocacy, indicated she would be more vocal about current affairs than has been the case with incumbent Borut Pahor, who has faced much criticism for failing to speak up about the previous government’s heavy-handed approach to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and crackdown on anti-government protests.
She has said the president must speak out when “human rights are violated when hate speech overrides respectful speech,when the constitution and the law are violated when the welfare state is collapsing ,and democracy has its wings clipped.”
In foreign policy, she will aspire for all Western Balkan countries to join the EU as soon as possible. She plans to continue pursuing the country’s existing foreign policy strategy and the Brdo-Brijuni process initiated by Pahor. However, she does not think meetings between Western Balkan leaders are enough.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
Source: euractiv.com
