President Zuzana Čaputová promised to announce whether she would run for re-election in the next year’s elections sooner than her predecessor Andrej Kiska did, but the deadline to do that was on 15 May – the day Kiska announced he would not run again.
Čaputová first made her promise in December 2021. During the debate with newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel at the start of March, she reiterated that she would “announce in the upcoming weeks.”
On Monday, Čaputová appointed the first technocrat government in Slovak history after she removed the mandate of Eduard Heger’s Cabinet. Some experts warn that her candidacy announcement would make her a target of the new government, whose members she handpicked and carries a political responsibility for.
The postponement does not impact Čaputová’s chances, according to Peter Spáč, an associate professor in the Political Science Department at the Masaryk University in Brno. “Whether she announces her candidacy now or the day before the legal deadline for submitting nomination papers will not fundamentally affect the number of voters,” he told SME daily. This is because she is already facing intense criticism and attack across the political spectrum.
The president is regularly attacked harshly by Smer-SD Chairman Robert Fico, who calls her “an American agent”, “an unpatriotic American maid”, or “a child of Soros”.
She is also a target for OĽaNO leader and former PM Igor Matovič. He described the head of state as a “false and often insidious woman”, and when asked whether OĽaNO would offer its own candidate in the presidential elections, he replied that there are “at least a hundred thousand women better than our current president”.
Despite the attack, Čaputová is still the most popular politician in the country, with over 40% approval rating and strong support, especially from liberal and pro-western voters.
Presidential elections in Slovakia are planned for the spring of 2024.
(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
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