Slovenia Elects First Female President

A liberal rights advocate, Natasa Pirc Musar, has won a run-off election to become Slovenia’s first female president, vowing to heal the country’s profound left-right divide.

With nearly all of the votes counted in the small European Union nation on Sunday, Pirc Musar led Slovenia’s conservative former Foreign Minister Anze Logar by 54 percent to 46 percent.

Her triumph strengthens the country’s liberal bloc, which was strengthened by the center-left coalition’s success in the April legislative election in Slovenia.

“My first task will be to open a dialogue among all Slovenians,” she said as her election team celebrated. “In the democratic election, Slovenians have shown what kind of a country they want.”

“All my life I’ve advocated the same values: democracy, human rights, tolerance. It’s time to stop dealing with the past. Many things have to be done in the future,” she declared.

Logar conceded defeat, saying he hopes Pirc Musar “will carry out all the promises” that she made during the campaign.

Pirc Musar, 54, will be Slovenia’s first female president since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.