Assassination attempt against Europe in Slovakia

In an economically and geopolitically difficult and transitional period for Europe, the Great Patient of the 21st century, the escalation of political violence is a threat to the unity of the EU and the social cohesion of all its member states. The events in Slovakia prove this truth.

The assassination attempt (16.5.204) against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico by the 71-year-old editor and political activist Jurai Chidua in the town of Hadlova was, according to today’s data, politically motivated. According to the statement of the arrested perpetrator, he was “dissatisfied with government policy” of Fico and had made the decision to assassinate the Slovak prime minister after the April 2023 elections.

For now, a number of questions remain unanswered about the circumstances of the attempted murder and the motive of the perpetrator. The political dimension of the murderous motive has been captured so far and the case of the perpetrator’s mental instability is reduced. The most important question, then, is whether the perpetrator acted on his own initiative (monarchical thief) or with others (contract killer).

So far, the publicized evidence portrays the actor’s nationalist, conservative or extreme philo-dynastic (pro-European and pro-American) worldview against the communist and philanthropic Prime Minister Fico. Obviously, the political pieces of the puzzle related to the internal political conflict in Slovakia. However, the main question that remains unanswered so far is whether the dimension of domestic political polarization is linked to the East-West geopolitical polarization in Europe, even in the strategically important states of Central Eastern Europe, where Slovakia has its own role. .

Despite the fact that Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, Tico, like Hungary’s Orban, is an outspoken supporter of Putin’s Russian policy on a number of key issues. Therefore, considering the geopolitical conflict of East and West in Europe, Fiço’s pro-Russian policy in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, combined with the perpetrator’s anti-Russian worldview, raise the question of whether the perpetrator acted alone. or participated in cooperation with other Slovak political circles and with foreign circles of Western origin.

If the investigations show that the perpetrator did not act alone, then the assassination attempt against Fico will not be the only blow against democracy. It will have an impact on the foundations of the prospect of European integration as well as on geopolitical stability in central Europe.