Slovenia will elect its president on Sunday, with a renowned jurist new to politics as the favorite who could become the first woman to lead the Alpine country. The polls attribute more than 50% of voting intentions to Natasa Pirc Musar, versus 44-49% for his conservative rival Anze Logar, former foreign minister, winner of the first round on October 23.
The 54-year-old lawyer, who has represented former American first lady Melania Trump’s interests of Slovenian descent in the past, should indeed be able to count on the votes of the centre-left voters, whose candidate lost the vote in the case.
However, in the event of weak mobilization, the deal could turn in Logar’s favor, 46, analysts have warned in the country of two million people from the former Yugoslavia and a member of the European Union (EU) since 2004.
“The Voice of Women”
Natasa Pirc Musar, who describes herself as a “liberal”, expressed her desire during the campaign to give this essentially ceremonial post more substance.
“The president can’t be neutral, he has to have an opinion,” was “a moral authority,” she told AFP between rounds. Outgoing head of state Borut Pahor has often been criticized for his passive attitude towards controversial ex-Prime Minister Janez Jansa.
“I’ve never been afraid to make my voice heard,” she says. The former TV presenter made a name for herself in the 2000s as head of the Slovenian data protection authority.
A tireless defender of the political class, she opened her law practice in 2016 and regularly scours TV sets as an expert.
The passionate motorcyclist became the target of attacks because of her husband’s lucrative investments, especially in tax havens.
“Perhaps I have suffered more brutal allegations than others because I am a woman. I was called a careerist, you would never say that about a man,” she lamented, wanting to be “the voice of women” in Slovenia and abroad.
Democratic counterbalance
The Conservatives, on the other hand, are dreaming of revenge after their heavy defeat in the parliamentary elections in April.
However, Anze Logar, one of the main tenors of Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), was careful to keep his distance, with the exception of a brief appearance side-by-side for the two men on the evening of the first round.
Labelless, unifying slogan and ‘moderate’ campaign: the suave, bike-riding candidate has pledged to be ‘the president of all citizens’, far removed from radical positions against the media and government justice Jansa – of which he is a part was from 2020 to 2022.
While his opponent is backed by Liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob, the 40-year-old claims a role of “surveillance,” a counterbalance that is “desirable for the democratic system,” he told AFP.
“But to his credit, he has more than 20 years of loyal service in a highly hierarchical party where everyone is accountable to the president (Janez Jansa, note believes Uros Esih, columnist for the daily Delo.
Polling stations open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., first results are expected in the evening.