Zuzana Caputova, a Slovak government critic who will face off against the ruling party's candidate in the presidential run-off later this month, is a liberal lawyer hoping to become the EU member's first female head of state.

The 45-year-old environmentalist and community activist had been largely unknown before she skyrocketed in polls and won round one of the election on the back of voter disillusionment with the governing coalition.

"People are calling for change," the elegant mother of two told AFP, one year after the murder of a journalist investigating high-level corruption plunged the eurozone country of 5.4 million people into crisis.

Caputova was among the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets after Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were gunned down at their home in February 2018.

Kuciak was about to publish a report on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia and associated irregularities in EU farm subsidy payments.

Then prime minister Robert Fico was forced to resign but he remains the leader of the ruling Smer-SD party and is a close ally of current premier Peter Pellegrini.

Caputova, the deputy head of the non-parliamentary party Progressive Slovakia, has vowed to fight for justice for all.

"In the eyes of voters, she is a response to our current problems," analyst Grigorij Meseznikov told AFP.

– 'Pure soul' –

Caputova, who has a gift for powerful rhetoric, has been endorsed by outgoing liberal President Andrej Kiska and celebrities like rock singer Palo Habera, who called her "a pure soul".

She is pro-choice and promotes greater rights for same-sex couples, believing that a child "would be better off with two loving beings of the same sex" than having to grow up in an orphanage.

Caputova considers her greatest disadvantage to be her lack of knowledge in the field of defence and security.

"I will have to rely on my advisors when it comes to those topics," she said, adding, "Also, punctuality is not my strong suit."

According to the Focus pollster, Caputova would get 64.4 percent of votes against Sefcovic's 35.6 in the presidential run-off on March 30.

– Landfill lawyer –

Born in the capital Bratislava on June 21, 1973, Caputova spent her early years in the nearby town of Pezinok.

After studying law at Bratislava's Comenius University, she joined Via Iuris, a leading Slovak legal advocacy organisation.

There, she spearheaded a successful campaign to block a dump site proposed for her native Pezinok that would have been the size of 12 football fields.

For 14 years the town's residents fought against the planned landfill, with Caputova organising what was dubbed the largest mobilisation of citizens since the 1989 Velvet Revolution — the peaceful uprising that toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

In 2013, the Slovak Supreme Court ruled in favour of the residents and annulled the authorisation to build the landfill.

The case also prompted the Court of Justice of the European Union to lay down rules requiring public access to urban planning decisions concerning projects that affect the environment.

"This story from small-town Slovakia has actually had an important international impact," Caputova later said.

Caputova won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's top award for grassroots environmental activism, for her efforts.

A member of the non-profit organisation Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Caputova lists drawing, basketball, hiking and swimming among her hobbies.

The English-speaker regrets having forgotten her Russian, which she would like to brush up on.

She is divorced and has two teenage daughters. Her current partner is a musician and photographer.