Slovakia, 2019: The Year of President Zuzana Caputova

"She brought a spirit of positive energy that has broken the bad mood that Slovaks have had for a long time," Zuborova, an analyst at the Bratislava Policy Institute think tank, told BIRN in an interview.

"She also represented a new hope that Slovakia might take a different direction than the rest of Central Europe."

The election of Caputova, a 46-year-old human rights lawyer and environmental activist, followed a year of anti-corruption protests and political upheaval in the wake of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fianceé, Martina Kusnirova.

Calling for a new kind of political culture, she ran on a progressive platform of tolerance, justice and respect for the environment, and stood out from her opponents in presidential debates.

"She has changed the way of communicating with voters," Zuborova said. "When it comes to marketing, she has brought something new to politics, something we'd never seen before — positive communication."

From the start, campaigning was polarised. Progressives focused mainly on fighting extremism and corruption while right-wing candidates like populist Stefan Harabin and proto-fascist Marian Kotleba stoked hot topics like migration, abortion and LGBT rights.

In the middle of all this, Caputova remained calm, composed and on topic. A month before the election, another progressive candidate, Robert Mistrik, stood aside in favour of Caputova to help her beat runners from the ruling SMER-SD party and the far right.

"They attempted to see the political culture differently," Zuborova said of Mistrik and Caputova. "They viewed politics as a real service to people, as a sacrifice of their own ambition, ideas or visions."

After her inauguration, Caputova set out to win back...