{"id":52298,"date":"2024-05-16T20:54:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/slovakias-politics-were-toxic-long-before-its-prime-minister-was-shot\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:54:08","slug":"slovakias-politics-were-toxic-long-before-its-prime-minister-was-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/slovakias-politics-were-toxic-long-before-its-prime-minister-was-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovakia\u2019s Politics Were Toxic Long Before Its Prime Minister Was Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/16\/multimedia\/16slovakia-fico-TOP-SWAP-tvbc\/16slovakia-fico-TOP-SWAP-tvbc-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Slovakia\u2019s Politics Were Toxic Long Before Its Prime Minister Was Shot\" title=\"Slovakia\u2019s Politics Were Toxic Long Before Its Prime Minister Was Shot\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To the government that charged him, he was a \u201clone wolf,\u201d an off-kilter individual representing nobody but himself when he pumped at least four bullets into Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The assassination attempt on Wednesday, however, has put a spotlight on a far wider collective malfunction in Slovakia. In this country in Central Europe, society and political culture are so bitterly divided that the violence attributed to a man who the authorities say acted alone has become yet another club with which each side can beat the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is a level of polarization that has never existed before in this country,\u201d said Daniel Milo, a former government official responsible for tracking disinformation who now works for a technology company. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Covid-19 pandemic, he said, hardened previously fluid lines into what have since become hostile camps, with little room for nuance. Roughly half the population welcomed vaccines and half rejecting them. \u201cIt became: Are you for or against? Do you believe or not believe?\u201d Mr. Milo said. And after Covid came the war in Ukraine, another source of division.<\/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\">The suspect was promptly arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempted premeditated murder, but the authorities have not named him publicly. Slovak news outlets, citing police sources, identified him as a 71-year-old pensioner with a yen for poetry and protests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Each side of the political divide quickly put him to use as a foil, with its claims tailored to match. For supporters of Mr. Fico who took to social media sites this week, the suspect was the carrier of a liberal virus that must be eliminated. The prime minister\u2019s critics painted him as a right-wing extremist.<\/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\">A particularly vituperative government supporter demanded in a message on Telegram that the government hand out guns \u201cand we will deal with the liberals ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, warned, \u201cWe are on the doorstep of a civil war. The assassination attempt on the prime minister is a confirmation of that.\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\">\u201cMany of you sowed hatred, and it turned into a storm,\u201d the minister added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Sutaj Estok oversees the security forces, including Mr. Fico\u2019s security. He acknowledged claims that lax security had allowed the gunman to get so close and open fire, but appeared to reject the idea. He said he had seen no evidence of unprofessionalism, noting that the leader of the department responsible for protecting senior officials was so close to the action that \u201chis whole suit was covered in blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Andrea Dobiasova, a spokeswoman for the Inspection Service, which is part of the police force, said the office had opened an investigation into the response of security officers at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Senior officials in Mr. Fico\u2019s governing Smer party have, in effect, accused liberal journalists and opposition politicians of motivating the shooter to open fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lubos Blaha, the vice chairman of the party, said the opposition and \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<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Such accusations fit into what Pavol Hardos, a political scientist at Comenius University in Bratislava, the capital, described as a long campaign by Mr. Fico\u2019s government to verbally attack not only political rivals but also their legitimacy. Before he was shot on Wednesday, Mr. Fico denounced an opposition leader as \u201cworse than a rat.\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 is pushing a strongly contested overhaul of the judiciary to limit the scope of corruption investigations, to reshape the national broadcasting system to purge what the government calls liberal bias and to crack down on foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations. He opposes military aid to Ukraine, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and the power of the European Union, and he favors friendly relations with Vladimir V. Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/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\">In all these particulars, he mirrors the right-wing nationalist leader next door, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. Opponents accuse Mr. Fico\u2019s government of preparing the ground for violence by raising tension, and some have compared him to Mr. Putin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jana Solivarska, a mother of three from Banska Stiavnica, a small town in central Slovakia, said that when she learned of the attack on Mr. Fico, her first reaction was, \u201cI am surprised it did not happen sooner.\u201d Slovakia is \u201ca very polarized country,\u201d she added. On the night of the attack, she said, her husband predicted that \u201cthis could result in civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Thursday, Zuzana Caputova, the country\u2019s departing president, stressed that the shooting was an \u201cindividual act\u201d and said she would invite leaders from Slovakia\u2019s main political parties to meet in order to \u201ccalm down the situation.\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\">\u201cWe have difference of opinions, but let\u2019s not spread hatred,\u201d she said in a statement alongside the president-elect, Peter Pellegrini.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Pellegrini echoed her appeal to tone down rhetoric while also calling on the country\u2019s political parties to temporarily pause or \u201ccalm down\u201d their campaigns for next month\u2019s European Parliament elections. Campaigns, he told a news conference, naturally involve confrontations and \u201cstrong opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe do not need more confrontation,\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\">Dominika Hajdu, a researcher with Globsec, a research group in Bratislava, said a big reason for the heated atmosphere was that the country, which has about 5.5 million people, had been in \u201ca constant political campaign\u201d since the fall. A legislative election in September brought Mr. Fico to power; it was followed by two rounds of a presidential contest in March and April, and now a campaign for the European Parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cElection campaigns by definition mean more heat and more political attacks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, she added, Slovakia\u2019s deep divisions also flow in part from its history \u2014 centuries under Austrian and Hungarian rule, followed by seven decades as part of a Czech-dominated Czechoslovakia, most of that time under the Soviet thumb. It was a nominally separate state for six years as a puppet of Nazi Germany. Only in 1993, after the collapse of communism and the division of Czechoslovakia, did Slovakia become a fully independent country.<\/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\">\u201cThe key national narrative is that we have always been oppressed by somebody \u2014 by the Austrians, the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Soviets or whomever,\u201d Ms Hadju said. \u201cWe always feel that there is a group endangering us, and this leads to a very divisive style of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/05\/16\/world\/slovakia-prime-minister-fico-shot#robert-fico-slovakia\" title=\"\">a combative veteran politician<\/a> widely loathed by Bratislava liberals but popular outside the capital, was shot multiple times on Wednesday, taking at least one bullet in his abdomen 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>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The shooting occurred after meetings with local officials and supporters in Handlova, a town in central Slovakia that voted heavily for his party in September.<\/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\">Officials said on Thursday that Mr. Fico\u2019s condition had stabilized after emergency surgery overnight. But, the deputy prime minister said at a news conference, he was \u201cnot out of a life-threatening situation.\u201d He said Mr. Fico had only a \u201climited\u201d ability to communicate and faced a \u201cdifficult\u201d recovery.<\/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\">That winner of last month\u2019s presidential election, Peter Pellegrini, is an ally of Mr. Fico who cast his opponent, Ivan Korcok, a former foreign minister, as a warmonger intent on sending Slovak troops into Ukraine. Mr. Korcok insisted he had no such plan \u2014 and would not have the power to send troops anywhere as president, a mainly ceremonial post. But he struggled to counter a flood of disinformation targeting him, pumped out by pro-Russia websites and social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Slovakia\u2019s divisions have been fed by its particularly noxious online ecosphere, where politicians like Mr. Blaha, an admirer of Che Guevara and Mr. Putin, have gained large followings with attacks on domestic critics and Western leaders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Fico started his political career more than three decades ago in the Communist Party and later became a free-market champion, attracting billions of euros in investment from German carmakers before shifting toward right-wing nationalism.<\/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\">In 2018, he cut short his second stint as prime minister, resigning in the face of enormous street protests after the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/26\/world\/europe\/jan-kuciak-slovakia-journalist-killed.html\" title=\"\">murder<\/a> in Bratislava of an investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak, who was digging into government corruption, and his fianc\u00e9e, Martina Kusnirova.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many analysts at the time believed that the resignation spelled the end of his long career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, defying predictions, Mr. Fico returned to the premiership last year after his party narrowly won a hotly contested legislative election. He strengthened his position this year when a longtime ally won the presidency, freeing him of the constraints imposed by Ms. Caputova, an outspoken liberal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Sara Cincurova<!-- --> contributed reporting from Bratislava, and Katarina Urban Richterova from Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia.<\/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\/slovakia-fico-toxic-politics.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the government that charged him, he was a \u201clone wolf,\u201d an off-kilter individual representing nobody but himself when he pumped at least four bullets into Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia. The assassination attempt on Wednesday, however, has put a spotlight on a far wider collective malfunction in Slovakia. In this country in Central [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52299,"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\/16slovakia-fico-TOP-SWAP-tvbc\/16slovakia-fico-TOP-SWAP-tvbc-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1404,2124,369,8088,10203,25818,129],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52298"}],"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=52298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52300,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52298\/revisions\/52300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}