Nataša Pirc Musar becomes first female President of Slovenia
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Alaina
- . November 14, 2022
- . Update: November 14, 2022 6:09 pm
Nataša Pirc Musar, a liberal lawyer and former data privacy commissioner has been elected as the first female president of Slovenia after she defeated her conservative rival in a runoff vote on Sunday. Musar received the support of country’s centre – left government.
With 99 per cent of votes having been counted, Nataša Pirc Musar was in the lead with having 53.8 per cent of the votes. On the other hand, the conservative veteran Anže Logar had 46.1 per cent of the votes. Both the presidential candidates were running as independents, but they were backed by the centre-left and rightwing political blocs of the east European country with population of 2 million. Logar, who was a foreign minister in the last government led by the rightwing populist former prime minister Janez Janša, had won the first poll round in October but failed to gain the required majority.
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Professionally a former journalist and presenter on Slovenia’s main news programme, Pirc Musar had gained additional training at CNN and Salford University’s media department before she completed a PhD in law at Vienna University. In 2004, she was elected as Slovenia’s commissioner for access to public information. Following that, she had also been hired to protect the interests of Slovenian-born Melania Trump, the former US first lady, during her husband Donald Trump’s US presidency, with job description including stopping companies attempting to commercialise their products with her name.
“I have never been quiet when it was necessary to speak up, especially not in the last two years”, she said when she entered the presidential race at the end of September. “After the last Janez Janša government took over I spoke out, because the rule of law was falling apart before our very eyes.” The 54 year old new President of Slovenia has also said that she would like to see the country connect to “core Europe”, especially with “countries that believe in human rights and constitutional values”.
