“Fico has been shot.” This message arrived in one of my group chats just after 3pm on Wednesday. I checked the news and forwarded what I learned to friends and family. Information was limited and headlines like “Robert Fico shot after government meeting in Handlova'' seemed like absurd facts.
Yes, Slovak Prime Minister Fico is a controversial figure. But could he really have been shot multiple times on a weekday afternoon in May? On Friday, he remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery.
Slovak politics is deeply polarized, leading to rhetorical and even physical violence. Journalists and activists, especially women, face threats online. In 2016 I was attacked while walking home from work. In 2022, two men were shot to death outside a gay bar in an attack that may have been politically motivated. Last fall, two former cabinet ministers caused a scuffle at a press conference.
But in many cases, hateful rhetoric is confined to the internet and has become normalized. Lawmakers, activists, and journalists consider it the price of participating in civic life. We are reassured that people who write threatening messages online are usually not the ones who do it.
However, this does not mean that the atmosphere does not influence politics. Outgoing progressive president and civil rights lawyer Zuzana Caputova has spoken openly about the fact that death threats against him and his family led to his decision not to run again.
However, this time someone shot and killed the prime minister. In retrospect, the hateful rhetoric seems to have gradually and inevitably led to violence, and we are waiting to see what happens next in this dangerous moment. . This attack could lead to severe action from the government and everything could get worse. Or perhaps sober thinking will prevail and we will stop, pick up the pieces of our broken country, and try to put it back together.
The importance of Fico in Slovak politics cannot be overstated. A former Communist Party member and founding member of the nascent center-left Smer party, he has served as prime minister four times since 2006. Relations with mainstream media became frosty and began to deteriorate. From there. There are frequent allegations of corruption. Anti-corruption protesters in 2016 unsuccessfully demanded the resignation of him and his deputy.
But what seemed to really divide Slovak politics was the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, who were shot dead in their apartment while Kuciak was investigating political corruption in 2018. Massive demonstrations, some with mock gallows and coffins, again demanded his resignation. At that time they were successful.
After that, the people remained largely divided into two camps: those who supported Fico and those who opposed him. The pro-Fico people were distorting the working class and the nationalists. Most of the opponents were liberal, wealthy elites.
When Fico tried to come back last fall, he embraced right-wing ideas and won in a landslide, even though his party still stands as a social democrat.
The political atmosphere has been particularly heated in recent months. Since Mr. Fico returned to power, his coalition has embarked on a controversial succession plan for the public broadcaster, and despite warnings and further protests from the European Union, he has continued to fight corruption. The monitoring agency was dismantled. Presidential elections were held in April, but Mr. Caputova did not run, but Mr. Fico's ally Peter Pellegrini won. From there, we went almost directly into the campaign season leading up to June's European Union elections.
With each election, each political rally, each campaign statement, the divisions grew stronger, becoming less about issues and policies and more like a Marvel-style battle between good and evil. It came from both sides. Last year, Fico's opponents suggested he would hand over the country to the “mafia”. And Mr. Caputova sued Mr. Fico after suggesting that he was a puppet of the United States and a supporter of George Soros.
But until this week, most of us still thought this is how politics works now.
Hours after the shooting, video footage was released, and the online activities and opinions of the suspect in the attack quickly came under scrutiny. Everyone thought it was political. A popular theory was that he must have been a progressive liberal. The actual motive is still unknown. The interior minister said the attack was “politically motivated” but said the suspects did not belong to “extremist groups”. He was identified only as Juraj C.
After the shooting, some deputies lost their anger and behaved normally. “This is your fault,” Deputy Speaker Sumeru yelled at opposition members. Another MP blamed journalists and declared the beginning of a political war. Thankfully, many other voices have called for unity and to stop stirring up an atmosphere of hatred. Mr. Pellegrini, who won the recent presidential election, and others called for a pause in campaigning for the European Union (EU) elections.
We now know that when we talk relentlessly about the battle between good and evil, someone, somewhere, may just take our word for it.
Alyona Krempaska is program director at the Institute for Human Rights, a human rights organization based in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The Times is committed to publishing a selection of letters to the editor. Please let us know what you think about this article or article. Here are some tips. Our email address is: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp. X And the thread.
