Attack against the Prime Minister of Slovakia sets off alarms in Europe

An armed man shot him at point-blank range several times. Prime Minister of SlovakiaRobert Fico, who is known for challenging his fellow leaders of the European Unionto. It is the most serious attack against a European leader in decades.

Fico was shot after leaving the Handlov House of Cultureá, a municipality in central Slovakia, while greeting a small crowd at the Banikov Square. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and later airlifted to another hospital for emergency surgery.

Hours later, the deputy prime minister, Tomas Tarabadeclared to the BBC that Fico’s situation was no longer life or death and that he hoped he would survive.

The attacker, identified by Slovak media as a 71 year old poetwas immediately knocked to the ground by security agents.

The Minister of the Interior, Matus Sutaj Estoksaid in a press conference that Fico had been shot five times and that the first evidence “clearly points to a political motivation”. When asked to name the attacker, he said: “Not today.”

The assassination attempt stoked fears that Europe’s increasingly polarized and toxic political debates were tilting toward violence.

Fico began his three-decade political career as a leftist leader, but over the years he moved towards the right. He was prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018, before returning to power in last year’s election. After being overthrown in the middle of street protests In 2018, he was re-elected thanks to a government plan of social conservatism, nationalism, and promises of generous aid programs.

His opposition to military support for Ukrainehis friendly relations with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and other positions have placed him outside the European mainstream. Just like his ally Viktor OrbánPrime Minister of Hungary, Fico has frequently criticized the European Union.

Like Orbán and the Dutch far-right leader, Geert WildersFico has reveled in presenting himself as a forceful defender of the common man, a declared enemy of liberal elites and a bulwark against immigration from outside Europe, especially Muslim immigration.

His critics have accused Fico of undermining the independence of the mediahave opposed his efforts to restrict the foreign financing of civic organizations and have described it as a threat to democracy. They also accuse him of wanting to return Slovakia to the repressive era of the Soviet bloc.

Fico’s political career appeared to be over after his ouster in 2018, but he found new support last year by promoting anti-incumbency stances. LGBTQ communityattacking the European Union as a threat to national sovereignty and opposing the continued supply of weapons to Ukraine.

During his tenure as prime minister, Slovakia became the first country to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, although it continued to provide non-military aid.

His return to power last year was a reflection of a broader trend in much of Europe: declining support for center-left parties and center-right that exchanged calmly after the elections and agreed on most things.

The attacker, identified by Slovak media as a 71-year-old poet, was immediately knocked to the ground by security officers (REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa)

The shooting was captured on several videos, which show Fico, 59, approaching a small group of people behind a waist-high metal barrier, when an older man pushed his way and fired a handgun at him. fire a few meters away.

In a video from Radio and Television of Slovakia, a public broadcaster, and verified by The New York Times, Five apparent gunshots are heard.

With the first shot, Fico doubled over at the waist and fell back on a bench as more sounds were heard. The security officers took him to a black Audi located several meters away, half carrying him towards the rear door of the vehicle.

A post on the prime minister’s official and verified Facebook page said Fico was in “life or death conditions”. “The next few hours will be decisive,” the publication said. Government officials did not specify which part of his body had been hit.

Police had no immediate comment on the attack, the most serious attempt on the life of a European head of government since the assassination of the Serbian prime minister. Zoran Djindjicin 2003.

The attack drew a chorus of condemnation from world leaders, including the president Joe Bidenwho called it a “horrible act of violence,” and Putin, who praised Fico as a “brave and strong-minded man.”

The Prime Minister of Slovakia was rushed to a nearby hospital and later airlifted to another hospital to undergo emergency surgery (AP)

The president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputováwhose position is largely ceremonial, said in a statement: “The attack against the prime minister is above all an attack against a human being, but also an attack against democracy.”

Some of Fico’s allies in Parliament suggested that his Liberal opponents had created the environment for the shooting.

Michal Simecka, president of the opposition Progressive Slovakia party, said he shared the sense of “horror” of the attack, but warned against spreading “false information” about the attacker. In a post on the social media platform

Fico resigned as prime minister in 2018, after weeks of mass protests over the murders of a journalist, who was revealing the government corruption, and his fiancee. Protesters said the government was not interested in solving the crime. Several people were later convicted for their involvement in the murders, but a businessman accused of orchestrating them was acquitted.

Source: Infobae

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