The first female president in the history of Slovakia is going to challenge long-standing industrial interests and the financing of coal mining after the election victory on Saturday.

In a second-round run-off vote, lawyer Zuzana Čaputová saw off European commissioner for the energy union Maroš Šefčovič, beating him 58% to 42% to take on the largely ceremonial role.

Čaputová has a long-record of championing environmental health, after she led a case against an illegal landfill site for 14 years.

Spokesperson Martin Burgr told Climate Home News that climate policy was one of the key issues for the new president.

“The need is clear: to keep global warming at 1.5C. And to do that we need to start green and just [transition] of not only our economy but society,” he said.

Burgr said the president-elect wanted Slovakia to grasp “the opportunities presented by low carbon development and eco-innovation in terms of sustainable and quality jobs, not ‘just’ protection of the climate”.

Slovakia is one of the most energy intensive economies in Europe, with its automotive, metal, steel and chemical manufacturers having been favoured over emissions cuts by Slovak governments.

Current subsidies prop up the otherwise uneconomical production of lignite, while a 2023 deadline to phase-out coal has drawn criticism for loopholes.

Burgr said Čaputová was an “outspoken critic of subsidies for coal mining” who backed an initiative calling for the swift phase out of coal mining and support for affected workers and regions.

Slovakia is part of the Visegrád group, a bloc including Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland, which has fought to quell EU climate ambitions. Čaputová’s spokesperson said she would “use her influence with the group to advocate for more pro-climate stance”.

However, Ada Ámon, a Hungarian analyst for the think tank E3G, said the win was “hope for the region”.

“For a Visegrad country, it is a very interesting development that a woman with a liberal, Erin Brockovitch background comes into the picture,” Ámon said.

Čaputová’s victory will not immediately impact the country’s direction. In Slovakia’s parliamentary democracy, the office of president does not have executive power. Asked whether Čaputová would act against the country’s coal subsidies, Burgr said that “it is not in the competence of the president to change this directly”.

But experts are confident that the future president could use her role to make pressure on the government of prime minister Peter Pellegrini and encourage as much public consultation and debate on climate as is possible and needed.