“Please be calm,” Slovakia’s outgoing president Zuzana Čaputová said on Thursday. “We have different opinions, but let’s not spread hatred.”
The president tried to calm the situation at a press conference a day after the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. He soon resigns due to the numerous death threats he received. But the attack on the prime minister, who is now out of danger, should not lead to more violence in politically polarized Slovakia, he warned.
His successor, Peter Pellegrini, stood next to him and emphatically asked the parties to tone down their European election campaigns for the time being. “At the end of the day, these kinds of campaigns are always full of confrontations and strong opinions.”
More polarization than elsewhere in Europe
The attack on Fico cannot be seen in isolation from the growing tensions in Slovakia, and the numbers confirm this. From the extensive data set of the research project Digital society project it seems that social polarization is almost nowhere in Europe as great as in Slovakia. Hateful language – online and in politics – and growing “Russian disinformation” are said to be contributing to this.
It drives some Slovaks towards the populist Fico and his Smer party, which won a quarter of the vote in the last election. Supporters are against a strong Europe, immigration and do not want to give money to Ukraine. According to the think-tank Globsec, up to 38 percent of Slovaks prefer a strong leader – who is not influenced too much by elections or parliament – over free democracy.
On the other hand, there are progressives, often young and living in and around the capital Bratislava. They vote for the liberal party Progresívne Slovensko, founded in 2017, which is pro-European and pro-LGBTI+ rights and abortion.
Fico as a catalyst for polarization
Polarization has marked Slovakia since the fall of communism in 1989 and the breakup of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992. But in recent years, Robert Fico has arguably been the catalyst. During his three terms in office – from 2006 to 2010, from 2012 to 2018 and from 2023 onwards – he has become known for his fierce anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric, his anti-European voice and his support for Russia.
Tensions increased in 2018 after the murder of young investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnírová. Kuciak investigated Fico’s possible ties to the mafia. His death caused a political scandal. When Fico resigned, three weeks after the journalist’s death, he and his ministers found themselves at the center of an investigation into corruption and abuse of power. This payment has been cancelled.
But now that Fico has been in power again since 2023, things have turned around. The prime minister quickly eased the anti-corruption penalties. He threatened to label NGOs as “foreign agents”, as Russia does with unwanted organisations. And Fico wants to shut down the public broadcaster RTVS, which is said to express far too “liberal ideas”.
The latter appeared to be the motive for the 71-year-old shooter, who was formally charged with premeditated murder on Thursday. “I don’t agree with Fico’s policies,” he said in the video, referring to strict reforms in the media and the justice system.
Civil war
On Thursday, Minister of the Interior Matus Sutaj Estok called for an end to the violent language on social media typical of Fico-era Slovakia. “I want to call on the public, journalists and politicians to stop spreading hate.” He warned: “We are on the brink of civil war.”
It didn’t make any sense so far. Progressives and journalists have Fico’s blood on their hands, concluded several of the prime minister’s parties and allies. “Because of your anger, the prime minister is now fighting for his life,” pro-Russian Lubos Blaha laughed at the opposition. “Do you have your habit now?”
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