Slovenians elected this Sunday the renowned lawyer and political novice, Natasa Pirc Musar, as the first president of the European country, according to the results published by the Electoral Commission.
The office of president in Slovenia is essentially protocol.
The 54-year-old woman, who was a lawyer for former US first lady Melania Trump, who is of Slovenian origin, won 54% of the vote, according to more than half of the polls.
Her rival, conservative Anze Logar, a former foreign minister who won the first round on October 23, won 46% of the vote.
In a country divided after the term of former prime minister Janez Jansa, Natasa Pirc Musar has made a call for “unity” and called for “disputes” to be put aside.
“My first action will be to invite all political party leaders to the presidential palace,” she said in Ljubljana, the capital.
Pirc Musar also affirmed his confidence “in the European Union and in the democratic values on which it was founded”.
With 2 million inhabitants, Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia and has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 2004.
The election winner will succeed Borut Pahor, 58, who served two five-year terms.
During the campaign, the candidate, who defines herself as “liberal”, highlighted her desire to give more content to this essentially formal post.
“The president cannot be neutral, he has to have an opinion”, be “a moral authority”, she told AFP between the first and second rounds of the election. “I was never afraid to make my voice heard,” she stressed.
Out-of-term head of state Borut Pahor, who was unable to run for re-election after two terms, was criticized for his passivity towards Janez Jansa.
