The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, made his first public appearance on Friday since the assassination attempt in May, Reuters reported.
Robert Fico is recovering after he was shot four times at close range in the town of Handlova in the middle of May. On Friday, he appeared at the evening ceremony marking Saints Cyril and Methodius Day, a public holiday in Slovakia.
He stood from a podium at the ruins of a castle more than 11 centuries old. The speech was a blow to progressive and liberal ideologies, which he said are “spreading like cancer” and harming the country. In his speech, Fico reiterated his call for action to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and said he would join Viktor Orbán on his visit to Moscow if his health allowed, adding that peace talks in the conflict are not enough.
I don’t want Slovakia to be among the countries that make a caricature of Western civilisation.
Fico, a four-time prime minister who returned to power after elections in September, has drawn criticism for views that differ from Brussels, as his foreign minister met his Russian counterpart despite EU officials avoiding high-level meetings with Moscow.
The assault has increased polarisation in the country of 5.4 million people. The opposition parties in Slovakia, for their part, fought the Fico government over changes regarding the amendment of certain criminal laws and the abolition of the special prosecutor’s office, the transformation of the public broadcaster and the termination of state military aid to Ukraine. The European Union, for its part, has been careful not to compromise the rule of law or media freedom.
In the video message posted on 6 June, the Slovak prime minister described the 71-year-old attacker as an opposition activist, but said he did not hate him and would not seek damages. Earlier this week, prosecutors reclassified the case as a terrorist attack. According to court documents, the detained man said he wanted to harm the prime minister, but not kill him, because he disagreed with government policies.
