The shock of an assassination attempt on Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, may cause a significant shift in the political landscape of the central European nation, though not necessarily in a positive direction. A lone shooter gravely injured Fico, firing multiple shots in the small town of Handlova this past Wednesday afternoon. Presently, Fico is expected to recover, although he was left battling for survival.
As Slovakia grapples to comprehend this unexpected attack, their political framework is at a critical juncture, with its future direction resting on governmental responses. Fico, who is 59, is a resolute politician with a penchant for populism and a true embodiment of Slovakia’s divisive political environment. His party, Smer, subscribes on the surface to left-wing ideologies, but in practice, they merge populism, nationalism and social conservatism.
Regarded as one of EU’s leading figures most allied to Moscow, Fico has capitalised on voters’ worries about the Russian conflict in Ukraine potentially meddling with Slovakia. He has thus won the popular mandate by pledging to halt Slovak military aid to Ukraine. Fico’s tenures as Prime Minister stretched between 2006 to 2010, as well as 2012 to 2018, before a controversy forced his resignation. However, his party’s victory in the previous year’s parliamentary elections saw him return towards the pinnacle of a coalition.
Fico’s administration since then has veered dangerously close to authoritarian rule, introducing plans to undermine the autonomy of the nation’s public broadcaster, intensify scrutiny of civic groups financed from abroad, and soften penalties for corruption. This push to remodel Slovakia akin to Viktor Orban’s Hungary has sparked widespread opposition rallies, particularly in the capital, Bratislava.
The alleged shooter, identified as a 71-year-old Slovak, has been apprehended and is facing charges by the police. The government asserts the suspect’s actions were driven by political motives. Although some political figures from various factions have called for tranquillity, others have pinpointed the assassination attempt as being part of broader political discord. Tomas Taraba, a senior minister, blamed Fico’s ‘hostile’ political adversaries for the incident, accusing them of having blood on their hands, in a commentary soon after the shooting.
The Interior Minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, expressed his disapproval of journalists and fellow politicians for fuelling hostility while standing by the hospital where Fico underwent surgery. He made a dramatic assertion that the nation was teetering on the brink of internal conflict.
The assassination attempt could either prompt a sincere attempt from all political sides to subdue the polarising language, or it might – and this seems more probable – lead to an increase in governmental aggression towards its political rivals, the media, and non-governmental organisations. Indeed, it has often been observed that crises have a way of consolidating authority.