– Slovakia’s Fico Blames Assassination Attempt On ‘Hateful’ Opposition & Its International Backers:
This week Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico appeared in a video message while still recovering from the May 15 assassination attempt which saw him shot multiple times at close range in broad daylight. In the video originally published to Facebook, he uttered his first official televised statements since the ordeal which very nearly took his life.
The video was recorded at his home in Bratislava, which suggests he’s nearly made a full recovery and is quickly returning to political life in the country’s top office. He said he has forgiven his attacker, identified officially by authorities as 71-year-old “Juraj C”, who had been tackled to the ground and immediately taken into custody after the shots rang out.
But Fico used the opportunity to put the opposition on notice, saying the shooter was an “activist of the Slovak opposition.” In the searing remarks, Fico called the man a “messenger of the evil and political hatred” who was motivated and whipped up by Slovakia’s “unsuccessful and frustrated” opposition. Amazingly, he at one point in the address – released days ago – made some indirect connections to his firm foreign policy stances and the attempt on his life (policies which have resisted Western hegemony as well as the rush to escalate involvement in Ukraine). Watch the remarkable speech below:
Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico speaks for the first time since surviving an assassination attempt.
In his 15-minute video, he said: “Not all major democracies were happy when I rejected the bombing of Belgrade or withdrew our troops from Iraq.”pic.twitter.com/W0TxVMAQpu
— Sam Street (@samstreetwrites) June 6, 2024
In the video he also addressed the Ukraine situation and his ‘controversial’ stance in opposition to NATO escalation head-on: “The situation in the relations between my political representation and partners in the EU and NATO escalated after the Russian attack on Ukraine, where we refused to provide Ukraine with any military aid from state stocks, except for humanitarian aid, and where we continue to fundamentally prefer peace to war.”
“The reluctance of some large democracies to respect the concept of a sovereign and self-confident Slovak foreign policy became grist to the mill of the Slovak opposition,” he continued.