Zuzana Čaputová

"Giving up is not a solution. It's what the mafia wants," Heger wrote on social media soon after, employing a term that Matovič's OĽaNO often uses to refer to previous governments led by Robert Fico's Smer party.



Korčok, a nominee of the coalition party SaS, who has backed the DCA from the outset alongside Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď of OĽaNO, said the pact showed the current government is serious about the country's security and defence policy.

Pope Francis gets off a plane upon arrival at Bratislava International Aiport. He was welcomed with a traditional tasting of bread and salt on the tarmac of the airport, and received a bouquet of flowers typical for Slovakia. Traffic in the country's capital was paralysed for several hours on the day given extraordinary safety measures.

Ever since Pčolinský was detained, Sme Rodina has publicly declared that the charges against him are unlawful, suggesting they were being pressed as revenge within the bigger picture of tensions between and within law enforcement institutions in Slovakia.

Matovic's Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLANO) party campaigned under the slogan "Together against the mafia".

Male politicians from conservative and far-right parties rallied against it, calling the convention an imposition of "gender ideology" that blurred boundaries between the sexes and undermined traditional family values.

While Smer-SD's defeat was almost inevitable, the winner was as surprising as it was deserved — Igor Matovic, an unorthodox politician, successful self-made businessman and a genius of political marketing.

But later, as a photographer and reporter, he realised his work could do some good. He started getting involved in fundraising campaigns for charities tackling poverty, cancer, education and climate change.

"It's evident that environmental issues resonate with society and political parties are forced to address them," said Radek Kubala, a campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Slovakia.

To see the pace of change, consider two recent events.