{"id":51773,"date":"2024-05-16T08:11:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/attempted-killing-of-slovakias-leader-shocks-a-polarized-nation\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:11:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:11:29","slug":"attempted-killing-of-slovakias-leader-shocks-a-polarized-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/attempted-killing-of-slovakias-leader-shocks-a-polarized-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempted Killing of Slovakia\u2019s Leader Shocks a Polarized Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/16\/multimedia\/16slovakia1-qvmp\/16slovakia1-qvmp-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Attempted Killing of Slovakia\u2019s Leader Shocks a Polarized Nation\" title=\"Attempted Killing of Slovakia\u2019s Leader Shocks a Polarized Nation\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A day after Slovakia\u2019s prime minister, Robert Fico, was critically wounded in what his government called <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/15\/world\/europe\/slovakia-prime-minister-robert-fico-assassination-attempt.html\" title=\"\">a politically motivated assassination attempt<\/a>, attention focused on Thursday on the security breaches that allowed the attack to occur.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico\u2019s condition has stabilized after <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/05\/15\/world\/slovakia-prime-minister-fico-shooting\" title=\"\">five hours of emergency surgery<\/a>, senior officials said late Wednesday. News reports on Thursday cited hospital and government officials saying, however, that his situation was still \u201cvery serious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Reuters news agency reported that the government would convene a meeting of security officials on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A former police chief, Stefan Hamran, said in an interview with Dennik N, a news outlet, that Mr. Fico\u2019s security detail had acted unprofessionally during and after the attack and blamed them for scenes of chaos. \u201cThere was chaos, that\u2019s obvious, and it\u2019s a failure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Political tempers in the deeply polarized Central European nation have been rising after Mr. Fico\u2019s shooting, with the prime minister\u2019s allies accusing their opponents of having \u201cblood on their hands\u201d and of stoking the violent hatred that they blamed for the shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The interior ministry in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, called for calm. \u201cLet\u2019s stop spreading hate and calls for violence,\u201d the ministry said overnight on a website it operates dedicated to fighting \u201choaxes and frauds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/15\/world\/europe\/robert-fico-slovakia.html\" title=\"\">a combative, shape-shifting veteran politician<\/a> widely loathed by Bratislava liberals but often popular outside the capital, was shot five times, taking at least one bullet in his abdomen, after meetings on Wednesday with local officials and supporters in Handlova, a town in central Slovakia that voted heavily for his party in a September election for Parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Amid mounting fear that Mr. Fico might succumb to his wounds, Slovakia\u2019s deputy prime minister, Tomas Taraba, told the BBC late on Wednesday that \u201che\u2019s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Filip Kuffa, a state secretary, said early Thursday on Facebook that Mr. Fico was in stable condition. \u201cPraise the Lord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Markiza, a usually well-informed Slovak television station, reported that the life of the prime minister was still hanging the balance. It said that cellphones had been taken from many staff members at the hospital to prevent them communicating information about Mr. Fico\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With social media in Slovakia frothing with unconfirmed reports about the motives of the suspect \u2014 identified by news media outlets as a 71-year-old amateur poet and erstwhile anti-violence campaigner \u2014 and his political leanings, politicians across the political spectrum voiced shock and outrage at the attack while pointing fingers at each other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lubos Blaha, the vice chairman of Mr. Fico\u2019s governing Smer party, said the opposition and what he called \u201cthe liberal media\u201d had \u201cbuilt a gallows\u201d for the prime minister by \u201cspreading so much hatred.\u201d Rudolf Huliak, an ally of the government from the far-right Slovak National Party, said progressives and journalists \u201chave Robert Fico\u2019s blood on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Slovakia\u2019s political temperature has risen to fever pitch in recent months as Mr. Fico\u2019s government, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/09\/30\/world\/europe\/slovakia-election-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">in power since a tight September election<\/a>, has pushed for an overhaul of the country\u2019s state broadcasting system to purge what it sees as liberal bias and crack down on nongovernmental organizations it views as agents of foreign meddling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Critics accused Mr. Fico of destroying democracy and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/01\/world\/europe\/slovakia-election-fico-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">trying to take Slovakia back<\/a> to the repression of the country\u2019s communist part before the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Their tone has often been shrill, but no more so than that of the government, which regularly denounces its opponents as enemies of the people serving foreign interests. Mr. Fico recently called an opposition leader and legislator \u201cworse than a rat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Speaking on Wednesday evening outside the provincial hospital where Mr. Fico was still undergoing surgery, the interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, said an initial investigation \u201cclearly points to a political motivation\u201d behind the shooting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/16\/world\/europe\/prime-minister-robert-fico-shooting-slovakia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A day after Slovakia\u2019s prime minister, Robert Fico, was critically wounded in what his government called a politically motivated assassination attempt, attention focused on Thursday on the security breaches that allowed the attack to occur. Mr. Fico\u2019s condition has stabilized after five hours of emergency surgery, senior officials said late Wednesday. News reports on Thursday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/16\/multimedia\/16slovakia1-qvmp\/16slovakia1-qvmp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11926,4373,1891,5061,25986,51660,25818],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51775,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51773\/revisions\/51775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}