Page 46 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

46 I Central Europe bne June 2024
Slovakia's political polarisation has worsened since the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018, and the opposition now calls regular demonstrations against Prime Minister Robert Fico's rule. / bne IntelliNews
Assassination attempt on Fico shows radicalisation of Slovak society
attempt] this becomes also for them a big reminder that when they push the situation too far that some people with extremist tendencies can have their nerves burst and commit such brutal and despicable acts,” Ivan Stulajter, former media advisor to ex-premier Eduard Heger, told bne Intellinews.
Immediately after the shooting, leftist Smer MP Lubos Blaha tried to blame the opposition for inspiring the assassination attempt.
“This is your work” and “you have what you wanted”, Blaha said when very few details were known about the shooting, which was actually carried out by
a 71-year-old who turned out to be a virtually unknown poet and onetime security guard.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj-Estok took a more measured tone, saying the shooter was a “lone wolf” who had been “radicalised recently, after the [spring] presidential election”.
Editor-in-chief of the Warsaw-based investigative outlet VSquare, Szabolc Panyi, pointed out on X that the apprehended assailant Juraj Cintula “was associated with pro-Russian paramilitary group Slovenski branci (SB)”, fuelling speculations about the assailant’s motives.
It is a clear that Cintula has a record of government criticism on social media and in the widely shared videos from the scene he appears to be shouting accusations against Fico over his attempt to exert greater control on the public broadcaster RTVS.
Fico's cabinet has faced criticism for its legislative proposal aimed at restructuring RTVS from across Slovakia’s liberal media and from
Albin Sybera
The shooting of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15 is already the third shooting to shake the country’s politics in six years.
Just like when investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancé Martina Kusnirova were murdered by a contract killer in 2018, and two young men were gunned down in front of LGBTQ-friendly bar Teplaren in Bratislava by a radicalised teenage shooter in 2022, the assassination attempt on Fico is poised to have a big impact on the course of Slovak politics.
The shootings partly reflect a level of aggressiveness and radicalisation in Slovak political discourse that is worse than neighbouring countries in the region, and there is no sign that this will diminish anytime soon, despite the wave of expressions of sympathy for Fico from across the political spectrum.
Some government politicians have already blamed the opposition for the
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shooting, while the opposition has blamed the government for causing the deepening polarisation in society, through its sharp attacks on them and its use of disinformation. The country's polarisation has clearly worsened since Fico was forced to resign in 2018 after the killing of Kuciak and Kusnirova, and then fought back to win last September's general election
by adopting radical rhetoric against the then centre-right government's COVID-19 restrictions and support for Ukraine.
“In a small corner of my soul, I am hoping that despite all the aggressive statements made by government politicians [following the assassination
“The shootings partly reflect a level of aggressiveness and radicalisation in Slovak political discourse that is worse than neighbouring countries in the region, and there is no sign that this will diminish anytime soon”