President Zuzana Čaputová officially assumed her duties on the 15th of June 2019. Over this time she has continuously ranked as one of the most trustworthy politicians in the country. However, her popularity has dropped over these four years. In this time, she inaugurated four Prime Ministers, faced the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian full-scale aggression in Ukraine as well as has been tackling inflation and political crisis. The experts say she is standing out during these very turbulent times. After one year in office, two thirds of the population supported the President. Zuzana Čaputová´s approval rating after 4 years has dropped to 40 percent.
Darina Malová from the Institute of Political Sciences Comenius University commented:
"No President is perfect. Some of her mistakes, especially if we speak about giving out State Awards, I think they resulted from the non-professional handling of the Presidential Office."
On the other hand, policy expert Malová says politicians such as former Prime Ministers Robert Fico and Igor Matovič have attacked the president publicly: "The aforementioned leaders heated emotions high because they wanted to come back onto the politics scene."
Director of the polling agency AKO Václav Hřích explained how the head of the state was thrust into the eye of the storm having been criticised by the coalition and opposition simultaneously: "The opposition parties started to profit from this, as it is very interesting for their own political discourse. You know, everybody is in a way related to their own electors. Therefore, the electors who lost their confidence caused a backsliding of Čaputová´s approval rating."
Václav Hřích concludes, in the case the president would aim to be re-elected, crucial will be who is her rival candidate: "In case there would be a big name with overall support in the public, it would be questionable. If no, she has big chance being re-elected with no serious problems."
Until now Zuzana Čaputová has not expressed in the public her willingness to be the Slovak president again.
Source: RTVS
