Inauguration of Peter Pellegrini
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On Saturday, June 15, Slovakia inaugurates the elected President Peter Pellegrini. He won the second round of the Presidential election in April, defeating diplomat Ivan Korčok. Peter Pellegrini will thus become the only Slovak that will have experience in all three top constitutional positions - the one of the speaker of the parliament, the Prime Minister, and the President.
Previously, he was the head of the second largest coalition party Hlas-SD (Voice-Social Democracy). The president should be impartial, so he resigned from this position, but he was elected the founding head of the party.
The inauguration of the President is a full-day event, starting shortly before noon with the ceremonial session of the parliament in the building of the Slovak Philharmonic. On the programme are also parades of the armed forces and presidential guard, a holy mass at the St Martins Cathedral in the centre of the capital Bratislava, official overtaking of the office from the outgoing President at the Presidential Palace. The new President will also commemorate general Milan Rastislav Stefanik at the site where his plane crashed in a village near Bratislava. He will also commemorate victims of the communist regime that were shot dead while trying to emigrate from Slovakia at the border with Austria in the Slovak borough of Devín.Peter Pellegrini will be the sixth Slovak President.
With the inauguration of the new President, the office of the first Slovak female President Zuzana Čaputová comes to an end. Her last farewell official state visit was, as is the tradition, to Czech Republic, this Wednesday. At first, it was not clear what her plans after the end of her office will be, some have suggested she might become the new NATO secretary general, but Zuzana Čaputová has denied this at the time. This week, she informed she plans to work in the education sphere.
During the office of Zuzana Čaputová, Slovakia had 5 Prime Ministers, including the first caretaker government in the history of Slovakia. She was also the head of the country during the Covid pandemic.
What kind of President was Zuzana Čaputová and what is her legacy? Ben Pascoe asked sociologist Oľga Gyárfášová, who was also one of her counsellors.
