Slovak opposition party leader Michal Simecka, who described an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico this week as an attack on democracy, said on Friday that he, his wife and child had received death threats.
\nHis experience is not uncommon, a measure of the extreme political and personal animosities in Slovakia and across Europe that formed the backdrop to the shooting of Fico, who was still in intensive care, two days after being shot at close range.
\nSlovaks like Lubos Oswald, a 41-year-old councillor in Handlova, Slovakia, where the shooting took place, felt a tragedy may have been in the making following years of deepening splits within the population and toxic political debate.
\n\u201cIt can\u2019t go on like this anymore: two neighbours hating each other for not having the same political opinions,\u201d he told Reuters outside the shopping mall in the town where the assailant, a former security guard, fired five shots at Fico as he greeted supporters after an off-site cabinet meeting.
\n\u201cThis is what I feel in the local council. People try to stir up emotions and hatred,\u201d Oswald said.
\nIn the hours following the shooting, politicians across the spectrum have sought to ease anxiety, with Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak calling for the country \u201cto embark on a path of tolerance\u201d.
\nBut in echoes of previous debates, Kalinak, a 53-year-old lawyer seen in Slovakia as Fico\u2019s right-hand man, accused opposition parties and the media of fanning acrimony by encouraging protests against government policy.
\n\u201cFrustration from endless losses\u2026 has led us to where we are today,\u201d Kalinak said on Thursday, adding that he believed the suspect became radicalised because voters gave power to a Fico ally, Peter Pellegrini, in April\u2019s presidential election.
\nTens of thousands of people have marched throughout the country of 5.4 million since Fico returned to government last October, calling his policies a power grab.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s putting his stamp on the whole political scene. In the past, he would done it more carefully, now he has a perfect blueprint given by (Hungarian leader) Victor Orban,\u201d said Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts President Samuel Abraham.
\nFICO PREDICTED A POLITICAL MURDER
\nFico embarked on a whirlwind of changes which have raised concern over the rule of law, including scrapping a prosecution branch dealing with high crime as well as plans to ease punishments for graft, revamp public media and limit the influence of non-governmental organisations. He has also ended government military support for Ukraine.
\nInterior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said the suspect listed government policies on Ukraine, dismantling the special prosecutor\u2019s office that deals with high-level corruption, and its plans to reform the public broadcaster as reasons for the attack.
\nFico had long accused civil society organisations and independent journalists of doing the opposition\u2019s bidding.
\nIn April, he warned that language by opposition supporters was dangerous.
\n\u201cThey are vulgar and swear at government politicians on the street \u2026 I am only waiting until this frustration \u2026 morphs into the murder of a leading government politician.\u201d
\nAuthorities have not named the suspect, but Reuters has matched photographs of him with a man pictured in a protest against Fico in April, holding a banner reading \u201cPEACE + PROSPERITY (West)\/WAR + POVERTY (East)\u201d and chanting \u201cshame\u201d and other slogans, some of them vulgar.
\nFor many Slovaks, anxiety had increased since parliamentary election campaign last year, during which President Zuzana Caputova accused Fico, who had called her a U.S. puppet, of inciting hatred against her, saying she had received death threats.
\nLenka, a 31-year-old social worker from Bratislava, said \u201csociety has two poles \u2026 There are people who love (Fico) and there are others who hate him.\u201d
\nStanding in the same underground passage in central Bratislava to take refuge from heavy rain above, Veronika, a 28-year-old architect, said the upcoming European elections in June added to widespread unease.
\n\u201cEveryone is tense \u2026 It\u2019s more and more aggressive, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s only in Slovakia, but worldwide.\u201d
\n(Reuters)Political polarization. political animosities, toxic political debate, death threats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slovak opposition party leader Michal Simecka, his wife, and child received death threats following an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico. The shooting highlighted deep political divides and toxic debate in Slovakia, with politicians calling for tolerance. Fico’s rapid policy changes raised concerns over the rule of law, leading to increased tensions and anxiety among the population. The suspect in the shooting targeted government policies on Ukraine, corruption, and public media reforms. Anxiety has grown in Slovakia since the parliamentary election campaign, with President Zuzana Caputova receiving death threats. The upcoming European elections have added to the unease, reflecting a global trend of increasing aggression in politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8625,5097,5650,383,8575,9134,3345,3520,1221,9250,2577,295,21,2692,894,1810,1600,153,201,3031,10371,10454,415,4542,10342,102,187,3755,5679,148,1018,1394,2952,1346,3504,183,4593,1429,5315,7378,5328,1696,4834,5410,4833,10455,7567,301,864,323,1004,4843,1356,1792,9686,463,577,623,3255,1623,433,827,223,7608,6475,10151,1358,2140,468,10456,6032,17,1504,380,1379,293,6305,7871,18],"class_list":["post-12305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-april","tag-assailant","tag-assassination-attempt","tag-attack","tag-authorities","tag-broadcaster","tag-cabinet","tag-cabinet-meeting","tag-campaign","tag-civil-society","tag-concerns","tag-corruption","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-death-threats","tag-democracy","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-european-elections","tag-fico","tag-fico-shooting","tag-government","tag-graft","tag-hate","tag-intensive-care","tag-international","tag-journalists","tag-law","tag-local","tag-mall","tag-man","tag-media","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-murder","tag-office","tag-opposition-party","tag-orban","tag-parties","tag-party","tag-party-leader","tag-peace","tag-peter-pellegrini","tag-policy","tag-political-animosities","tag-politicians","tag-politics","tag-population","tag-poverty","tag-power","tag-president","tag-presidential-election","tag-prime-minister","tag-prosecutor","tag-protest","tag-protests","tag-rain","tag-reforms","tag-revamp","tag-school","tag-security","tag-shooting","tag-shot","tag-shots","tag-slovakia","tag-support","tag-suspect","tag-tensions","tag-toxic-political-debate","tag-tragedy","tag-ukraine","tag-unease","tag-us","tag-voters","tag-war","tag-who","tag-wife","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n