Politics & Power Quote by Zuzana Caputova

“At this solemn moment” does a lot of stage-setting: Caputova isn’t chatting; she’s stepping into a ritual where words are supposed to carry the weight of the state. The line that follows pivots on a quiet correction. Plenty of leaders promise to be “president of all citizens” as a civics-class slogan, a polite fiction meant to sand down conflict. Caputova signals she knows that phrase is often thin, then upgrades it: “in another, much stronger sense”. That small escalation is the tell.

The intent is reassurance, but not the mushy kind. It’s a claim that neutrality isn’t the goal; legitimacy is. In a polarized environment, “all citizens” can read like a demand to treat every grievance as equally valid, every power bloc as equally deserving of access. Her subtext pushes back: I’ll be president for people who didn’t vote for me too, but not by laundering extremism or corruption into the national “we”. The stronger sense is ethical rather than arithmetic.

Context matters because Caputova’s political identity has been tied to rule-of-law politics, civic decency, and resistance to the capture of institutions. Coming into office, she faced citizens split between a liberal, pro-European orientation and a louder current of nationalist resentment and distrust. The phrase works because it acknowledges division without flattering it. It’s also a rhetorical inoculation: she’s preempting the inevitable charge that a reformist president only represents “the city”, “the elites”, “the NGOs”. By reframing unity as standards-based inclusion, she stakes out a presidency that belongs to everyone precisely because it refuses to belong to anyone’s worst impulses.