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LAST UPDATE | 16 May 2024
SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER Robert Fico is able to speak but remains in serious condition, officials have said as police charged a suspect for the attack they called politically motivated.
President-elect Peter Pellegrini briefed journalists a day after the shooting, which has prompted fears of further violence in the politically polarised nation just weeks before European parliament elections.
“He is able to speak but only a few sentences and then he is really, really tired … The situation is very critical,” Pellegrini said outside the hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica.
“The doctors asked me to make a really very short visit,” he added. “I told him that we stand behind him.”
But he said that “very difficult hours and days” lay ahead for Fico.
Yesterday, train conductor Richard Krajcik was hoping to get a selfie with Fico after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova when shots rang out.
“Everything happened so fast,” Krajcik told AFP, gazing at the spot in the main square where Fico was struck.
Yesterday’s attack has stoked fears in the deeply polarised nation, as officials drew a link between the political situation and the suspect’s motives.
Police charged the suspect, identified as 71-year-old writer Juraj Cintula in local media, with attempted murder today.
“This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential election since he was dissatisfied with its outcome,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said.
Pellegrini, who won last month’s presidential vote and is a political ally of Fico, called for calm and urged political parties to halt campaigning for the EU parliament election when far-right parties are expected to gain votes.
The biggest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, and others announced that they had already stopped their election lobbying.
Slovakia’s political scene has been divided for years between pro-European and nationalist-leaning camps.
Disinformation and attacks on social media featured heavily during the latest election campaign.
Pellegrini, who takes office in June, said in a joint statement with outgoing President Zuzana Caputova that Slovakia should avoid “further confrontation”.
The two politicians represent rival political camps but Caputova said they wanted “to send a signal of understanding” as she urged an end to “the vicious circle of hatred”.
Surgeons spent hours operating on Fico to save the life of the 59-year-old.
Footage just after the shooting showed security agents grabbing a wounded Fico from the ground and bundling him into a car, while other officers handcuffed a man on the pavement.
Fico, whose party won the general election last September, is a four-time prime minister accused of swaying his country’s foreign policy in favour of Russia.
Fico also headed the government in 2006-10 and 2012-18. He was forced to resign in 2018 after an investigative journalist’s murder exposed high-level corruption.
Since returning to office, Fico has made a string of remarks that have soured ties between Slovakia and neighbouring Ukraine after he questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty.
After he was elected, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in 2022.
He also sparked protests with controversial changes, including a media law critics say will undermine the impartiality of public broadcasters.
Analyst Milan Nic said the shooting was a “turning point” for Slovakia.
“It’s a moment that will shake society,” he told AFP.
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He also refused to sign that WHO pandemic agreement, handing over a lot more control of his country to unelected persons whose ideologies most likely did not align with the best interests if Slovakia. Did Ireland sign that treaty and if so can any tell us why?
@Oh Mammy: “Did Ireland sign that treaty and if so can any tell us why?”
No, Ireland did not sign the Pandemic treaty, as the treaty does not yet exist.
“WHO Member States agreed to resume negotiations aimed at finalizing a pandemic agreement during 29 April to 10 May. The decision came at today’s end of two weeks of intensive country-led discussions on critical subjects aimed at making all countries of the world better prepared for, and able to effectively and equitably respond to, future pandemics.”
@Oh Mammy: Conspiracists very often can’t draw the line between speculation and truth! You would have won the far-right bingo if you also said the buzzwords NWO, replacement theory, and WEF!
Apart from that, it is reported that the far right were involved in this attempted assassination. Not surprised. Along with the calls to violence written on the walls in Waterford city, and the 2 attacks on politicians by the far-right, why are you lot so violent?
According to reports, the shooter, Juraj Cintula, a sympathiser of the far right pro-Kremlin milita, Slovački Branci (SB). The leader of the group was trained by Russian special forces (Spetsnaz) and they have connections with the Russian Knight Wolves (a Kremlin sponsored morocycle gang). This is a change from about a decade earlier when Juraj Cintula founded a pacifist group in his village, The Movement Against Violence avd was in a left wing writers club, but he left the club in 2016 when his politics changed. Recently, Cintula was posting about his support of Slovački Branci and his anger that gambling was taking over villages in Slovakia.
Article about Slovenskí Branci:
@David Jordan: The entire thing seems off.
Fico is a russian stooge.
Yet this shooting was done by an erstwhile member of a russian trained paramilitary group.
Maybe the far-right ideology finally just melted his brain.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Seems paradoxical. It looks like the far right shot itself over its flourishing conspiracy theories. The belief in conspiracy theories is very common in Slovakia (and to a degree here too, as your comment and the upvotes it got demonstrate).
Conspiracy theories are especially common among those who are fond of Russia and authoritarian politics. The minds of many are melting there. This is a good paper:
Lintner, T., Diviák, T., Nekardová, B., Lehotský, L. and Vašečka, M., 2023. Slovak MPs’ response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in light of conspiracy theories and the polarization of political discourse. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), pp.1-11.
@David Jordan: I have to wonder why there are not PhD studies on this phenomenon.
There are rich seams to be mined in both the US and the russian world in particular.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Surely far left rather than far right?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Yes, there is a PhD on the subject (and at least one recent book):
Conspiracy Theories and Politics in Slovakia: How Conspiracy Thinking Relates to Political Opinions and Preferences
“Abstract (English)
Conspiracy theories have become a fashionable buzzword, appearing across the internet, the media, and political speeches with great frequency. However, there are many misconceptions associated with them, making them more divisive and mysterious than they need to be. The present contribution seeks to remedy that by providing a deep dive into conspiracy theories. It examines the multitude of their possible definitions and conceptualizations, their existence across history, as well as past research findings about why they appeal to us. In the second half, conspiracy theories are presented through new research regarding their relation to political and ideological preferences of Slovaks. The findings are in line with past studies, showing a relationship between stronger conspiracy beliefs and extremist thinking, preference of authoritarian policies, and low faith in authorities. A regression analysis also uncovered a strong correlation between conspiracy beliefs and the political party the respondents had voted for, as well as their preference of the politics and ideologies of ‘the West’ (EU, USA) or ‘the East’ (Russian Federation).”
https://dspace.cuni.cz/handle/20.500.11956/171406
Book: Panczová, Z., 2020. The victims, the guilty, and “us”: Notions of victimhood in Slovakian conspiracy theories. In Conspiracy theories in Eastern Europe (pp. 186-204). Routledge.
@Tom O’ Donnell: Nope!
Far right.
@David Jordan: Interesting!
But that seems to barely touch the surface, although I can only read the Abstract.
It would be really interesting to look at the followers of the US Republican Party, US Evangelical “Christianity”, the QAnon phenomenon, Trumpism, the US Antivax movement, and individual conspiracy theories like ‘The Great Replacement Theory’, Liberal Indoctrination theory, CRT in schools, and so on.
And that’s just the US.
There are also those who fall for russian narratives, even when they can see for themselves what russia is doing.
But this is just a tiny thing compared to what is going on in the US.
“Prime pinister” ?
@Ian McDonald:
@Ian McDonald: don’t need to spell check anymore…it’s all about the clicks
@Ian McDonald: Semi-spoonerism.
@Toca Stories: This is the level of professional journalism we expect from these activists
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: That was some list you rattled off. I doubt you understand much of it. Just talking points really. How about you say something? Instead of Russian stooge maybe tell us why he is a Russian stooge. Or how about CRT? I would love to hear why someone that would oppose such is bad? Go on, have a lash.
@Oh Mammy: surely you don’t need to spell out why he is so obviously a Russian stooge.
@Oh Mammy: Reading the article would give you some clues about this russian stooge.
As for CRT in US schools:
CRT has never been taught is US schools, despite the nonsense claims of the US far-right. Claims which you seem to believe.
CRT – Critical Race Theory – is a University level course that seeks to understand the levels and extent of racism in US society.
Now, why do *you* believe that CRT has been taught in US schools?
What other nonsense conspiracy theories have you been a sucker for, and spread about?
D.Peadar: I would have won a prize IF I said things, that I did not say. I am violent because some scrote wrote graffiti on a wall in Waterford? I stated a fact you did not dispute and you just made a vile ad hominem attacks on me. The irony….
Click-no comment.
Old judge No… is at it again. Yet another empty, pointless sentence. What does it take to get rid of that usele$$ cl0wn?
@Oh Mammy,your constant gaslighting is a joke ,
@Oh Mammy But he is a Russian stooge.
@Jack Hayes: why? I am just asking questions and I get no answers or engament only snark. What is wrong with asking a question? I will admit it do it purposefully just to highlight the deficiency in debate and respect. Christopher Hitchens was excellent. I did not agree with all his views but the ones I did NOT agree with, he made me think, maybe even converted me. Gore Vidal, William F Buckley debates were amazing. Two smart humans debating it out. I had respect for both. Even the recent debate in Oxford where Nancy Pelosi engaging was very good, telling. So please do not be so quick (and vapid) as to accuse me of gaslighting or being a Russian stooge. I didn’t know there was a Russian enclave in Trim
…
@Oh Mammy: Christopher Kitchens was a hack and couldn’t even convince his own brother and in fact helped turn him Christian. Listen to Peter Hitchens if you want to hear decent arguements
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