Shortly after the taking pictures of Robert Fico, I acquired a telephone name from my sister. She was extraordinarily upset – not simply in regards to the surprising assault, but in addition about an incident on the bus on the way in which residence from work within the moments after the information had damaged. Two aged fellow passengers reacted to the tried assassination by blaming liberals and progressives typically, and specifically Michal Šimečka, an opposition politician and former vice-president of the European parliament. One passenger referred to as for the dying penalty to be reinstated and order to be restored.
At that time, the circumstances of the taking pictures have been completely unclear, data was partial, and it was too early to sentence or level the finger at anybody. My sister, who considers herself a liberal, spoke as much as argue in opposition to the opposite passengers.
However when she phoned me to say she was anxious about what would come subsequent, I might really feel her trembling.
Slovakia has lengthy expertise with “restoring order”. When the liberal a part of the inhabitants hears these phrases, we predict not solely of the specter of Viktor Orbán-type autocracy, however of our 40 years of communist dictatorship or the wartime fascist Slovak state. However an more and more huge a part of the Slovak inhabitants, fuelled by nostalgia and low expectations, is able to embrace what such regimes promise – and in a means, I can perceive why.
Up to now 5 years, Slovakia has skilled a churn of collapsed or disgraced governments, unsolved murders, mass protests, a disastrously dealt with Covid pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the following battle subsequent door, an inflow of refugees from throughout the border and file inflation.
With every such occasion, the varied tribes of opinion in our deeply divided society drift aside like damaged ice floes on opposing currents. As in Poland or Hungary, there are pretty clear dividing strains: between conservative voters and liberals, between youthful and older individuals, between those that really feel a part of the west as embodied by the European Union and people who look eastward, in direction of Russia. Some name for freedom, particular person duty and equality; others for the robust hand of the state, the safety, security and order of an autocratic system. On one aspect are opposition supporters, and their chief, the younger Šimečka; and on the opposite aspect is the governing coalition, with Fico at its head.
Peter Bárdy, editor-in-chief of the Slovakian information website Aktuality, wrote that “the excellent news is that Robert Fico’s well being has stabilised. Many issues rely upon it.”
However I’m following discussions amongst pals and fellow journalists – and as they see it, no matter occurs with Fico’s well being, issues will solely worsen. Saving the prime minister’s life, his restoration, punishing the accused, shedding gentle on his motives – none of this can calm the escalating disaster wherein Slovakia finds itself.
And the scenario has certainly escalated – even earlier than this, verbal assaults on social networks have been vitriolic whether or not you have been speaking about politics or commenting on kitten photos. Journalists and politicians alike obtain dying threats every day, bullets in envelopes, letters with vulgar content material.
The bodily assault on the prime minister was a singular act of violence, unprecedented in latest European historical past, and condemned by everybody throughout the political spectrum.
Nevertheless, it isn’t the one latest act of political violence in Slovakia. Within the Nineties, we had the assassination of witness Robert Remiáš. In 2018, the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, deaths that triggered mass protests and ultimately pressured Fico out of energy. Two younger individuals have been gunned down exterior the Tepláreň membership, a venue common with the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. There have been brutal police raids on Roma settlements. The outgoing president, Zuzana Čaputová, and her household have acquired dying threats at her residence.
A big a part of Slovak society has, due to this fact, been dwelling lately with the unstated worry that the anger of some pissed off particular person will flip into an act of violence. As Čaputová mentioned: “What occurred [to Fico] was a person act, however the collected hatred was a collective act.”
Whereas coalition politicians preach to individuals about not spreading hatred, they themselves are actively inflaming attitudes to the impartial media. The influential MP and ally of Fico L’uboš Blaha, talking simply hours after the taking pictures, instantly pinned duty for the assault on the liberal media, the opposition and a few particular politicians. “You have got made us targets,” he mentioned. One other minister wrote on Fb that the opposition had blood on its arms. The chairman of the governing coalition’s Slovak Nationwide occasion, Andrej Danko, introduced legislative adjustments in opposition to the media on the premise that Slovakia was now on the point of a “political battle”. He requested journalists: “Are you happy now?” For good measure, Danko referred to my colleagues from the information organisation Denník N as “ugly pigs”. Not so way back, Fico himself referred to as journalists “soiled anti-Slovak prostitutes”.
The scenario will not be calmed by the obvious failure of the state safety forces. If they may not shield the prime minister – the suspect is a 71-year-old pensioner – in a sparse crowd of supporters, can residents belief the safety forces, the data service and the police?
The paradox is that after Fico’s return to energy in September 2023, virtually in a single day he ordered large restructuring within the establishments of state, shut down a particular prosecutor’s workplace and appointed individuals to senior positions on the premise of occasion affiliation.
Coalition politicians are calling for calm now however they’re those pointing fingers and stirring up the anger of the gang. They name for improved safety, however pursue legal guidelines that threaten not solely the security of public figures, however all of us. Weakening the courts, limiting penalties for corruption, weakening democratic establishments.
Fico and his individuals perceive politics – not as a service to residents, however as an train of the feudal proper to energy and property. For them, the nation is a fiefdom from which they have to take advantage of for so long as they’ll. They’re prepared to alter the structure, the legislation, impose censorship and weaken democracy to realize what they need.
And now, their populist, law-and-order options will enchantment to many individuals, like these on the bus with my sister, demanding retribution and the dying penalty.
After an assassination try on the prime minister, you possibly can justify something.
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Monika Kompaníková is a Slovakian author and editor
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