How Slovakia’s poisonous politics left prime minister fighting for his life

Robert Fico prepares for an electoral TV debate in September. Photograph: Vladimir Simicek/ AFP via Getty Imagesand left gravely injured on Wednesday, some of his allies accused the opposition and the media of having blood on their hands and threatened a clampdown.

“This tragic event should be a lesson to all of us”, Vera Jourová European Commission vice-president said. “All over Europe, we can see increased polarisation and hate ... We have to understand that verbal violence can lead to physical violence.” In a rare sign of unity, Slovakia’s outgoing liberal president, Zuzana Caputová, joined her successor and Fico ally, Peter Pellegrini, to make a joint address on Thursday. “We are in complete agreement in condemning any violence,” said Caputová. “Yesterday’s attack on prime minister Robert Fico is first and foremost a great human tragedy, but also an attack on democracy.”

One particular concern is the response of the ultranationalist SNS party that forms part of Fico’s three-way coalition. Its chair, Andrej Danko, warned that “a political war is beginning at this stage”. “Politicians have been pouring a lot of oil on the fire here, so I think it was only a matter of time for something like that to happen. But that doesn’t mean that it was easy to imagine this could actually happen to our prime minister,” said Michal Venglar, a 33-year-old teacher.

Grigorij Meseznikov, a political scientist and president of the Institute of Public Affairs think-tank, said Slovakia’s “very confrontational” politics could be attributed to an “incomplete democratic transformation” after the fall of communism and the persistence of “problematic value orientations” such as xenophobia and homophobia.

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