Get Well Soon, Mr. Fico!

Attempted assassination of Robert Fico made international news

The Slovak prime minister, Mr. Robert Fico, has been shot and gravely injured in an assassination attempt in the town of Handlová. He was attacked by some deranged pensioner with a legal handgun licence. The prime minister reportedly hovers between life and death in the hospital. Shocking news.

Truth be told, Mr. Fico is a skilled demagogue with an exquisite sense for what voters want to hear. When people grew tired of COVID-19 measures, he rallied against the authorities in disregard of any scientific consensus. Like Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Mr. Fico earns political capital from anti-European rhetoric while continuing to receive handsome development funds from the European Union. He was a communist but now claims to be Catholic, he's fiercely homophobic, and he strongly opposes immigration — in particular when it comes to people of Islamic persuasion, vowing to "never bring one single Muslim to Slovakia." In terms of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Fico mumbles about some mythical "Slavonic solidarity", but says that "Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country" and claims that fighting Russia is futile and merely "fills more graves in the cemeteries". He cultivates and protects a loyal network of cronies, blocks investigation into the murder of an investigative journalist in the web of which he may have been involved, and gets positively vulgar when exposed to questions from the free press.

That said, there is no excuse for the use of violence, not even against an authoritarian, disingenuous, and manipulative bully with probable criminal connections.

So here I am to wish Mr. Fico a quick and full recovery. Just last year, voters democratically elected him to (again) become the leader of the Slovak Republic. He has the right and obligation to fulfil his election promises. And if he committed any crimes, then I wish him to live to face those charges as well.

In a democratic society, violence is never the answer. Truth will ultimately prevail as it always does.

Tomáš Fülöpp
Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgium
May 15, 2024

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