(source: SITA/TASR/Sme)
A new president, the end of the Constitutional Court saga, several court trials and revelations about the judiciary. While 2018 took place in the squares of Slovak towns, 2019 unfolded in courtrooms and polling booths.
The Slovak Spectator selected the biggest events that shaped Slovakia in 2019:
> Slovakia elects its first Madam President
> Promissory notes trial
> Murder of journalist - investigation wrapped up, trial starts
> Slovakia learns what Threema is
> Constitutional Court in limited operation
> Moratorium on polls passed and suspended
> Newcomers on the political scene
> Abortions talk occupies public debate
> Screening of journalists and of the general prosecutor
> Gorilla makes a comeback
> Trial with ĽSNS and its MP
> People of Slovakia elect their MEPs
> Slovakia gets ELA
> Acorda's killer receives prison sentence
Slovakia elects its first Madam President
In the presidential election in March 2019, Slovaks elected their new head of state –the first female president Zuzana Čaputová. She has been characterised as pro-western, pro-European, liberal, environmental activist and attorney.
Čaputová was recognised internationally, when she won the Goldman Environmental Prize in April 2016. This is the world’s biggest award for grassroots environmental activists leading a public campaign to prevent the authorisation of a waste dump that would have polluted the soil, air and water in the town and its surroundings.
Anne Applebaum, a columnist for the Washington Post, compared the USA and Slovakia in her commentary, praising Slovakia’s president. "Čaputová’s success offers hope that even when politics seem to be at their darkest and most dangerous, a new political project, one that no one imagined before, can still capture the public imagination," Applebaum wrote.
