A Lawyer’s Cry to ‘Fight Evil’ Puts Her On Course for the Presidency
- NGO lawyer Caputova leads polls for first-round vote Saturday
- Top EU official, anti-establishment judge may also advance
This article is for subscribers only.
A year ago Zuzana Caputova was a lawyer whose biggest claim to fame was stopping a well-connected businessman from building a landfill in Slovakia’s wine country. Now she’s the favorite to become president.
Caputova, 45, has ridden a wave of anti-government anger triggered by a journalist’s murder to propel her from obscurity to poll leader. Support for her pro-European Union, rule-of-law message marks a departure from the political mood in neighbors Poland and Hungary, whose nationalist governments have clashed with the bloc over the erosion of democracy.