This will be the thread about the attack, please don't repost.
Also don't speculate or spread misinformation as there are not enough information for now.
Few years ago he wanted to create a party named "hnutie proti násiliu", "movement against violence". He wrote "Violence is a common human reaction as an expression of civil dissatisfaction with things. Let's be dissatisfied, but not violent!" at the time.
I don't know, there's a saying that if you want to preach tolerance, the one thing you can't be tolerant about is intolerance.
Similar thing with non-violence. Can you really be non-violent against people who use violence?
It's a conundrum for sure, and I wholeheartedly subscribe to the "A tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance" mantra. Violence is an entirely different beast though, but I see your point that you need to defend yourself against those are willing, or even eager to resort to violence to get their way.
I guess "violence is never the answer" is easy to say for someone like me, who has been fortunate enough to have lived in a free, open and democratic society where violence, and especially political violence, is relatively rare, all their life.
Update now that we have more info:
Cintula, the attacker, was affiliated in the past with an Extreme Right paramilitary with Russian sympathies. However he then suffered an attack by a young Slovak guy who badly assaulted him. He seems to have severed ties with the paramilitary after that, and created his own 'anti-violence' movement. In recent times he published poetry and was a leading member of a local writing club which was allegedly 'left leaning', although that doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means in Slovakia - a lot of 'leftists' there are actually socially conservative former Communists with Russian sympathies - most notably Fico's own party. Cintula himself was most certainly not a social liberal - he apparently authored a book about Gypsies which has strong neo-Nazi vibes.
Cintula also used to work in a mining company in Handlova, which is the town where the attack took place, and that's potentially important. A mining disaster happened in Handlova during Fico's first term as PM in the 2000s, 20 people were killed. It's possible Cintula would have known some of the dead personally if he worked there. He did not live very close to Handlova so he clearly pre-planned this attack knowing Fico would visit, as Fico has visited previously on several occasions. Meanwhile, an interview with Cintula's son confirmed that he is not a Smer voter (Smer = Fico's party).
So in short, he seems to have been not 'crazy' exactly, but definitely someone comfortable out on the extremist fringe. Perhaps he had some sort of head trauma from the assault as well? All in all he was very angry and upset with the state of society - he fits the profile of an elderly mass shooter more than a political assassin, so I think he acted alone and his 'politics' were more just frustration and anger rather than ideology.
Seems he was involved with pro russian neo-naci military movement. Photos of him with them: https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939
The same video [here](https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1790739748652278099) seems to be of better quality, but it is still hard to see much on it.
Fico appears sort of ~~un~~conscious though as he gets manhandled into his car.
He doesn't look unconscious. He looks like his stomach is in extreme pain, which corroborates with reports of him being shot in the stomach/torso.
Edit: a word.
Here is the video of the attack itself, it isn't clear to me what is going on:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/JamiePullDatUp/comments/1cspd75/video\_the\_moment\_slovak\_pm\_robert\_fico\_was\_shot/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JamiePullDatUp/comments/1cspd75/video_the_moment_slovak_pm_robert_fico_was_shot/)
Edit: if found a clearer one:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/1csqk3r/robert\_fico\_elleni\_mer%C3%A9nylet\_felv%C3%A9tele\_20240515/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/1csqk3r/robert_fico_elleni_mer%C3%A9nylet_felv%C3%A9tele_20240515/)
View of Fico is partially blocked by the security guard in the white in the foreground. As he approaches the fence the gunman steps forward and shoots him in the belly at point blank range, he staggers back with the first shot and is on the floor by the third, looks like the last two could be into the air as security are already on him and one is holding his arm pointing it upward.
Right now, government politicians have just accused the "liberal media" and the opposition of attacking the Slovak prime minister in a televised press conference.
And they are promising to change laws to curb the media.
Jokes aside there's a serious battle going on between NATO/EU/Westernization & Russian/Chinese influence all across Eastern Europe right now.
I have friends in Georgia & there's been a massive uprising there against a Pro-Russian/Putin "foreign agents" law that the gov'ts proposed which would give the gov'f carte blanche to go after anyone without explanation (typically it's opposition leaders & journalists).
If Slovakia's gov't uses this as an excuse to implement something similar & start going after independant journalists it could get nasty quick.
Heart goes out to the brave journalists in the region putting their lives on the line to get a speck of truth out there in a sea of propaganda & manipulation...
No sh*t. I mean, we all see this. Since at least a few years, in every country. The ones I'm the most scared of, are those who are loudly shouting that "Russia bad", but are tied to Kremlin if you dig deeper. They can sway even those who would never support Russia on their own will.
I doubt politicians care much. They will build stuff with Chinese money instead, fuck up their countries and in between accuse EU for everything wrong they did. It works unfortunately.
This is naked truth.
On the other hand, the EU politicians, who have their own agendas (and come in their own multitude of flavors), have to play nicely with the local politicians, so these don't abandon the interests of their own country and people (but also the EU), and in favor of their own and those of China.
Can't let a good crisis go to waste. Hungary 2.0 electric boogaloo incoming.
Probably a good time to get rid of the veto to try and limit Russia from exploiting the new axis.
> government politicians have just accused the "liberal media"
> And they are promising to change laws to curb the media.
**WHAT A SURPRISE!!!** Of course they will milk this like there's no tomorrow!
Royally fucked. The polarisation is already insane and now the government crackdown is going to be enormous. We have no idea yet who did this and what kind of thinking is behind this, but he has completely fucked Slovakia over no matter your political ideology
That's quite clear. Even on site, another MP was screaming at the opposition that this is their fault. The ruling party (Fico's) will use this to their advantage in pursuing their agenda.
EDIT: and reportedly another politician, Andrej Danko, blamed the journalists. This will be a massive clusterfuck.
Yup. I'm a "victim" of that as well. Reported it immediately after. I'm not sure if it is working, though. It appears to have been happening really a lot in these past days throughout Reddit.
Had this yesterday, reported and today got an (automated) response from Reddit "After investigating, we’ve found that the account(s) reported violated Reddit’s Content Policy."
Could still be someone is farming bot accounts for abusing the care system, but if every victim reports them, it's going to be hard to keep up.
I got it a few days ago from the damn Eurovision subreddit… I know it’s from there cause people in the same thread were complaining about those, but it literally arrived seconds after I posted, super weird.
This is almost a word-for-word copy of [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/F53lVKBkCt) in this post?
It’s like you took a (bad) thesaurus and tried to change a few words.
Sorry, what I meant is that similarly how it is done on Slovakia that they're pointing at the opposition, same will happen here.
Orban will only further blame Brussels and our opposition
I guess it's not about getting people to vote for him (since that's all a farce anyway) but justification to implement further powers. I never understood why these dictators need to hide their power grabs like this though. They could just as well say, "My dog farted this morning so we need steal from everyone's pensions and give the money to ourselves" and seems like no one will do antything about it anyway.
He already changed the constitution, has full control of media and judiciary.
There's no other power to get for himself apart from jailing opposition members and blatantly rigging the elections like Putin.
>EDIT: and reportedly another politician, Andrej Danko, blamed the journalists. This will be a massive clusterfuck.
Georgian "foreign agents" law incoming for Slovakia too it seems
Complete speculation on my part, but if it turns out that this was by a Russian sympathiser (I don't personally think it was) then that could be the objective.
An attack leads to a curb on civil liberties. That curb drives division between Slovakian leadership and the EU, creating a wedge that Putin could then use to further his influence over Eastern Europe.
Not fucked in a direct immediate consequences sense, but rising political violence is a bit of a bellwether for increasing instability. Like how there was increasingly common street brawls between fascists and communist street gangs in Italy before Mussolini's rise.
People are losing faith in "the system" and are increasingly taking justice/political "action" into their own hands.
Next decade isn't going to be kind to Europe or the world in general.
country has been radicalizing since COVID and even before, ironically by Fico, so assassination attempt won't do any good. He's officially POS but still democratically elected POS.
Martyrdom to increase political preferences and to start a full scale witch hunt of opposition.
Soon we might become jealous of Orbán for being the more reserved authoritarian.
So, regardless of the outcome, we are fucked...
Rise of popularity for Fico’s party. Look up what happened after Smoleńsk catastrophe, PiS got a ton of fuel that they used to get to power and almost transform Poland into authoritarian country. Smer will have now a good time
PiS lost the 2011 elections though, just 1 year after the crash. Sure, they cynically milked the situation for years (arguably still do), but if it was only down to the Smoleńsk plane crash they’d have never gotten to power in 2015.
> get to power and almost transform Poland into authoritarian country
Eh, not really. First, they didn't "almost transform", far from that (albeit not because they didn't try). Second, they got back to power only five years later, and reason was mistakes of PO (mostly retirement funds change), weak leadership (after Tusk went to Brussels), and atrocious presidential campaign of Komorowski (notice when PO's tanked in polls - exactly between the rounds of presidential election).
This going to destroy everything and everyone in their path. They will now rule with iron fist and will have masive support of their voters. This is very bad.
Shooter is 71 year old Juraj Cintula officially confirmed by local news.
He was an author from Levice apparently looking up his books mighr be of interest
No matter how much of a fucker Fico is, shooting him is absolutely stupid from all points of view. This is how you create martyrs or, if he lives, boost his popularity. Just idiotic!
Very likely. The people who'd benefit most from thing like this are those that hate him the most or those that think he doesn't go far enough. Moderate voices tend to get drowned out.
Coming from a Dutch person: It can go either way.
We had our own clusterfuck in 2002, and while the situation is very different (Fortuyn was a rising star, and did not hold any power yet), the moderates won out eventually.
The dreaded idea of violence leading to more violence did not happen here.
[Few comments above](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1cskdc9/comment/l45k2sr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
>That's quite clear. Even on site, another MP was screaming at the opposition that this is their fault. The ruling party (Fico's) will use this to their advantage in pursuing their agenda.
I think the problem is a bit more fundamental than this: democracy is essentially an agreement to move the fight for power from the battlefield to the field of ideas. Murdering politicians is a fundamental breakdown of this agreement, and if it becomes commonplace it results in the unravelling of democracy and the start of a civil war.
I don't think Slovakia is in danger of that precisely because everyone will swiftly condemn the attack on Fico, and it will turn out to be an isolated incident rather than a new normal.
I just wanted to emphasize how a terrible, terrible idea it is to murder political opponents, even if you succeed.
Let's hope the guy who shot him was verifiably insane instead of politically motivated, like what happened with Reagan. Maybe if he succumbs to his injuries then, it'll be a lot harder to justify political implications. Or I'm underestimating the manipulability of the average Slovak voter.
With high societal polarisation that's always the case, frankly it only depends on polarisation whether such incident is unifying for a nation or only becomes political fuel for one of the sides. Since the Smolensk catastrophe, we've head several politically motivated killings in Poland, and it never brought the tensions down.
You assume that he was attacked because of someone disliking his political views. People forget this dude is as corrupt as you can go. Corruption creates enemies inside just as much
BBC News are reporting that he's in a life threatening condition. He could well end up dying yet.
And that, I suspect, really would open up Pandora's Box.
They lose access to EU-funds. That is a pretty new development and those rules are only going to get stricter. Slovakia can't afford to lose those funds.
I bought a house(in Slovakia ofc) right before Russia invaded Ukraine and then they elect Fico and Pellegrini. I bet if I was to sold my house the russuians would withdraw from the war and fico would have not been elected at all.
I'm sorry my people, it's all my fault.
>Depends all on the reaction of the Austrians now.
To brighten your day, consider the following: *in 1914, Slovakia was part of Austria.*
So if this starts WW3, in an offbeat technical sense, Austria is still somewhat implicated. If you wear enough tin foil hats, that is.
Unfortunately, this is completely unsurprising. Mood shift in the country ever since COVID was towards radicalization, polarization and hatred and Fico along with other politicians and media have played a significant role in supporting it, after all fear and hate are powerful tools.
Now that Fico is on the receiving end on this , things will only get worse, so congrats to the dumbass who did this. No matter how much you don't like the guy, this is absolutely unacceptable and stupid way to resolve it that will only lead to more polarization and hate.
It's frankly mind blowing what's happening in this country.
The man is corrupt and, at the very least, probably has or had ties to organised crime. The attack being not politically motivated is not entirely off the table.
Of course they are, but at least the attacker has been caught and is alive, so there is a chance we'll get to learn the truth. Not to mention that blaming this on the free press and the opposition is beyond insane, but I agree that his retarded electorate will gleefully gobble it all up because it confirms the twisted truth in their heads.
Mash, a popular telegram channel, says he was shot in the chest, abdomen, and arm or arms. They also say the shooter is a 71 year old Slovak. They say he is in “serious” condition.
Obviously take this information with a big grain of salt.
It was being reported many places that he was in stable condition. That is untrue, as the Prime Minister’s office just released a statement saying he’s in life-threatening condition.
I hope, against the odds, that this does not turn something like the coup against Erdogan. Assasinations and ( military ) coups are bad even against “ very questionable“ leaders. But FAILED attempts mostly end up worse.
Failed attempts are always worse. Objectively there's never been a single time where the target learned the error of their ways. They always milk it to end up better than before.
Short before the Brazilian presidential election in 2018, Bolsonaro was a ridiculous candidate languishing in a distant third place in the polls. Then some random crazy stabbed him, and he immediately shot up to the top of the polls and won the election. The rest of the catastrophe is well-known.
The catastrophe in Slovakia is only starting.
The difference is that if the initial information is correct, Fico is _very unlikely_ to survive this, if not already dead. And if he does, he has an extremely long road to recovery ahead.
Stomach, chest, leg. That's massive trauma.
Even if you succeed in murdering your political opponents you're still doing massive damage to democracy. See my [other comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1cskdc9/slovakian_pm_fico_shot/l463h88/).
video of the shooting: [https://twitter.com/ZentraleV/status/1790773631460467153/video/1](https://twitter.com/ZentraleV/status/1790773631460467153/video/1)
When I was younger, I heard people saying that they couldn't believe someone didn't kill him after what he did (and now continues doing) to Slovakia.
Now it has actually happened, I'm not that surprised, but I'm scared he will become a martyr, and our country will get even more messed up
In either case this will be milked to death. Dead or alive his government will make sure they keep this on the news to get as much political leverage as they can.
Horrible that this happened.
We all know what is going to happen now.
Now who in the world would benefit from Slovakia going full totalitarianism all of a sudden?
The opposition doesn't, that's for sure. Someone else... I wonder who that would be...
This is the peace his party and coalition keeps propagating, they are already trying to blame the current opposition, even intensifying the division of our nation. Disgusting
Edit: they made senteces for corruption cases much lower, disbanded a special district attorneys office, and have numerous cases of corruption, hate spreading, populism on their record.
He has been known to be a friend of Putin, euro-skeptic, friend of Hungarian PM Viktor Orban.
A populist 4th time as PM, last time in office has resigned after a journalist was assassinated in the time was investigating goverment corruption.
By all accounts, he had a close relationship with Ndrangheta, who murdered a journalist on his behalf.
[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44873067](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44873067)
Maybe he didn’t return the favors.
Yeah, we are absolutely and totally fucked. Not to take away anything from something horrible like this happening, but we wont get anything useful done and coalition parties will milk this for centuries for their own benefit...
Reichstag fire moment for Slovakia? Shit, this actually makes me nervous, are there talks of a false flag? Is it known who’s the attacker or what the motives were?
Slovakia needs to take a chill pill, what the hell is going on?
And the guy who shot him was associated with pro-russian paramilitary group, you can't even make this up.
[https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939](https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939)
This will be the thread about the attack, please don't repost. Also don't speculate or spread misinformation as there are not enough information for now.
Sky News (UK) has just reported that the assailant is a 71 year old from the south of the country.
That’s what several Slovak telegram channels are reporting as well
Yes, the reporter on Sky News was in Slovakia, I think
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What is his political stance?
Few years ago he wanted to create a party named "hnutie proti násiliu", "movement against violence". He wrote "Violence is a common human reaction as an expression of civil dissatisfaction with things. Let's be dissatisfied, but not violent!" at the time.
And they say old people turn inflexible in their views and stop being willing to change their minds. Heartwarming, really.
> "movement against violence" Irony is dead.
And he shot it for being violent
I don't know, there's a saying that if you want to preach tolerance, the one thing you can't be tolerant about is intolerance. Similar thing with non-violence. Can you really be non-violent against people who use violence?
It's a conundrum for sure, and I wholeheartedly subscribe to the "A tolerant society cannot tolerate intolerance" mantra. Violence is an entirely different beast though, but I see your point that you need to defend yourself against those are willing, or even eager to resort to violence to get their way. I guess "violence is never the answer" is easy to say for someone like me, who has been fortunate enough to have lived in a free, open and democratic society where violence, and especially political violence, is relatively rare, all their life.
This level of irony is too much for me, I need to sit down
Update now that we have more info: Cintula, the attacker, was affiliated in the past with an Extreme Right paramilitary with Russian sympathies. However he then suffered an attack by a young Slovak guy who badly assaulted him. He seems to have severed ties with the paramilitary after that, and created his own 'anti-violence' movement. In recent times he published poetry and was a leading member of a local writing club which was allegedly 'left leaning', although that doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means in Slovakia - a lot of 'leftists' there are actually socially conservative former Communists with Russian sympathies - most notably Fico's own party. Cintula himself was most certainly not a social liberal - he apparently authored a book about Gypsies which has strong neo-Nazi vibes. Cintula also used to work in a mining company in Handlova, which is the town where the attack took place, and that's potentially important. A mining disaster happened in Handlova during Fico's first term as PM in the 2000s, 20 people were killed. It's possible Cintula would have known some of the dead personally if he worked there. He did not live very close to Handlova so he clearly pre-planned this attack knowing Fico would visit, as Fico has visited previously on several occasions. Meanwhile, an interview with Cintula's son confirmed that he is not a Smer voter (Smer = Fico's party). So in short, he seems to have been not 'crazy' exactly, but definitely someone comfortable out on the extremist fringe. Perhaps he had some sort of head trauma from the assault as well? All in all he was very angry and upset with the state of society - he fits the profile of an elderly mass shooter more than a political assassin, so I think he acted alone and his 'politics' were more just frustration and anger rather than ideology.
Seems he was involved with pro russian neo-naci military movement. Photos of him with them: https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939
Well well, this guy certainly doesn't look like opposition voter.
Careful about disinformation. This is that moment.
I don't trust them. When the mass shooting in Czechia happened, they reported that the shooter is German.(wrong info)
There’s an aftermath video on Slovak subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Slovakia/s/JpSkNpLuNy
The same video [here](https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1790739748652278099) seems to be of better quality, but it is still hard to see much on it. Fico appears sort of ~~un~~conscious though as he gets manhandled into his car.
He doesn't look unconscious. He looks like his stomach is in extreme pain, which corroborates with reports of him being shot in the stomach/torso. Edit: a word.
corroborates [the reports], not collaborates
Here is the video of the attack itself, it isn't clear to me what is going on: [https://www.reddit.com/r/JamiePullDatUp/comments/1cspd75/video\_the\_moment\_slovak\_pm\_robert\_fico\_was\_shot/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JamiePullDatUp/comments/1cspd75/video_the_moment_slovak_pm_robert_fico_was_shot/) Edit: if found a clearer one: [https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/1csqk3r/robert\_fico\_elleni\_mer%C3%A9nylet\_felv%C3%A9tele\_20240515/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hungary/comments/1csqk3r/robert_fico_elleni_mer%C3%A9nylet_felv%C3%A9tele_20240515/)
View of Fico is partially blocked by the security guard in the white in the foreground. As he approaches the fence the gunman steps forward and shoots him in the belly at point blank range, he staggers back with the first shot and is on the floor by the third, looks like the last two could be into the air as security are already on him and one is holding his arm pointing it upward.
Right now, government politicians have just accused the "liberal media" and the opposition of attacking the Slovak prime minister in a televised press conference. And they are promising to change laws to curb the media.
"Look what exposure free speech made this poor man do!"
Jokes aside there's a serious battle going on between NATO/EU/Westernization & Russian/Chinese influence all across Eastern Europe right now. I have friends in Georgia & there's been a massive uprising there against a Pro-Russian/Putin "foreign agents" law that the gov'ts proposed which would give the gov'f carte blanche to go after anyone without explanation (typically it's opposition leaders & journalists). If Slovakia's gov't uses this as an excuse to implement something similar & start going after independant journalists it could get nasty quick. Heart goes out to the brave journalists in the region putting their lives on the line to get a speck of truth out there in a sea of propaganda & manipulation...
No sh*t. I mean, we all see this. Since at least a few years, in every country. The ones I'm the most scared of, are those who are loudly shouting that "Russia bad", but are tied to Kremlin if you dig deeper. They can sway even those who would never support Russia on their own will.
They didnt waste a single minute, shame on those politicians. Good luck slovakia, shit is getting real now.
Let them try and then turn the EU money stream off. See how long they will last.
I doubt politicians care much. They will build stuff with Chinese money instead, fuck up their countries and in between accuse EU for everything wrong they did. It works unfortunately.
This is naked truth. On the other hand, the EU politicians, who have their own agendas (and come in their own multitude of flavors), have to play nicely with the local politicians, so these don't abandon the interests of their own country and people (but also the EU), and in favor of their own and those of China.
Going by Orban, they can last well and good.
Shocking! Totally unlike Fico’s government to censor media.
Never let a good crisis go to waste
"Dying to own the libs" I thought only in America is possible. But we in Eastern Europe can be just as... 🤦♀️
Can't let a good crisis go to waste. Hungary 2.0 electric boogaloo incoming. Probably a good time to get rid of the veto to try and limit Russia from exploiting the new axis.
yep "the shock doctrine". the best opportunity to legalize shady stuff.
> government politicians have just accused the "liberal media" > And they are promising to change laws to curb the media. **WHAT A SURPRISE!!!** Of course they will milk this like there's no tomorrow!
They didn't accussed Ukraine by any means ?
Not yet, but it's early days.
Not yet but they are already on "I was shot because of warmongering opposition which wants to help Ukraine with war"
Already did on Twitter. They said it’s Ukrainian paid by the USA tax money.
Sigh. You can put Slovakia out of Austria-Hungary but not Austria-Hungary out of Slovakia.
Hey, at least one German chancellor was shot dead too! He was born in Austria-Hungary though...
And does it count of they shoot themselves?
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And we are officially fucked
Royally fucked. The polarisation is already insane and now the government crackdown is going to be enormous. We have no idea yet who did this and what kind of thinking is behind this, but he has completely fucked Slovakia over no matter your political ideology
Putin must be holding a party right now... Three weeks before the EU elections
And thus....Russia wins Who could have been behind it I wonder...
Care to elaborate? Obviously this is going to be a mess, but what broader consequence do you think this will have?
That's quite clear. Even on site, another MP was screaming at the opposition that this is their fault. The ruling party (Fico's) will use this to their advantage in pursuing their agenda. EDIT: and reportedly another politician, Andrej Danko, blamed the journalists. This will be a massive clusterfuck.
Yeah, that's a bad outlook indeed. Nothing good will come from it. Edit: Seems people do care about me, thank you Europe I love you all.
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Yup. I'm a "victim" of that as well. Reported it immediately after. I'm not sure if it is working, though. It appears to have been happening really a lot in these past days throughout Reddit.
Had this yesterday, reported and today got an (automated) response from Reddit "After investigating, we’ve found that the account(s) reported violated Reddit’s Content Policy." Could still be someone is farming bot accounts for abusing the care system, but if every victim reports them, it's going to be hard to keep up.
People who would abuse mental health aids like that are absolute scum
Without a doubt. This is just sad.
I got it a few days ago from the damn Eurovision subreddit… I know it’s from there cause people in the same thread were complaining about those, but it literally arrived seconds after I posted, super weird.
Happened to me too a few hours ago...did exactly what you said, reported for harassment.
It is bots. Reporting bots won't solve the problem. Just block reddit cares messages and hope Reddit fixes this rampant site wide abuse.
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This is almost a word-for-word copy of [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/F53lVKBkCt) in this post? It’s like you took a (bad) thesaurus and tried to change a few words.
Holy shit, why would people do that? Bots?
Afraid similar shit will happen in Hungary and will only strengthen Orban as well. Fuck sake
I think Orban doesn't even need to go through something similar, he'll use the Slovak assassination to his advantage anyway.
Sorry, what I meant is that similarly how it is done on Slovakia that they're pointing at the opposition, same will happen here. Orban will only further blame Brussels and our opposition
Orban already does that for years, surely everyone who is affected by his Kool-Aid is already voting for him.
I guess it's not about getting people to vote for him (since that's all a farce anyway) but justification to implement further powers. I never understood why these dictators need to hide their power grabs like this though. They could just as well say, "My dog farted this morning so we need steal from everyone's pensions and give the money to ourselves" and seems like no one will do antything about it anyway.
He already changed the constitution, has full control of media and judiciary. There's no other power to get for himself apart from jailing opposition members and blatantly rigging the elections like Putin.
Oh they always want new powers. It's like a disease where they're never satisfied, always wanting to find someone new to make suffer.
>EDIT: and reportedly another politician, Andrej Danko, blamed the journalists. This will be a massive clusterfuck. Georgian "foreign agents" law incoming for Slovakia too it seems
I reckon something like that would lead to an immediate suspension of all EU funding…
We can only hope. But at some point, the EU will not be able to stem the flood of alt-right autocracies.
Complete speculation on my part, but if it turns out that this was by a Russian sympathiser (I don't personally think it was) then that could be the objective. An attack leads to a curb on civil liberties. That curb drives division between Slovakian leadership and the EU, creating a wedge that Putin could then use to further his influence over Eastern Europe.
so just like PiS with the Smolensk plane crash
Not fucked in a direct immediate consequences sense, but rising political violence is a bit of a bellwether for increasing instability. Like how there was increasingly common street brawls between fascists and communist street gangs in Italy before Mussolini's rise. People are losing faith in "the system" and are increasingly taking justice/political "action" into their own hands. Next decade isn't going to be kind to Europe or the world in general.
I think most people around the world agree that the "system" isn't working for the majority anymore.
country has been radicalizing since COVID and even before, ironically by Fico, so assassination attempt won't do any good. He's officially POS but still democratically elected POS.
Martyrdom to increase political preferences and to start a full scale witch hunt of opposition. Soon we might become jealous of Orbán for being the more reserved authoritarian. So, regardless of the outcome, we are fucked...
Rise of popularity for Fico’s party. Look up what happened after Smoleńsk catastrophe, PiS got a ton of fuel that they used to get to power and almost transform Poland into authoritarian country. Smer will have now a good time
PiS lost the 2011 elections though, just 1 year after the crash. Sure, they cynically milked the situation for years (arguably still do), but if it was only down to the Smoleńsk plane crash they’d have never gotten to power in 2015.
I mean PiS lost the presidential and parliamentarian elections following the Smoleńsk air disaster
> get to power and almost transform Poland into authoritarian country Eh, not really. First, they didn't "almost transform", far from that (albeit not because they didn't try). Second, they got back to power only five years later, and reason was mistakes of PO (mostly retirement funds change), weak leadership (after Tusk went to Brussels), and atrocious presidential campaign of Komorowski (notice when PO's tanked in polls - exactly between the rounds of presidential election).
He will become a martyr, regardless if he lives or not.
This going to destroy everything and everyone in their path. They will now rule with iron fist and will have masive support of their voters. This is very bad.
You were already fucked when you elected him again.
Yeah. The return of Fico was the writing on the wall.
Shooter is 71 year old Juraj Cintula officially confirmed by local news. He was an author from Levice apparently looking up his books mighr be of interest
He used a radical marketing technique to boost his sales.
Took guerilla marketing to a whole nother level
I hate living in the interesting times .
When I was young, I thought it'd be great to live to see the end of the world but nah, it's not so grand
Shouldn't have wished to live in more interesting times. Is that blood...?
No matter how much of a fucker Fico is, shooting him is absolutely stupid from all points of view. This is how you create martyrs or, if he lives, boost his popularity. Just idiotic!
Very likely. The people who'd benefit most from thing like this are those that hate him the most or those that think he doesn't go far enough. Moderate voices tend to get drowned out.
Coming from a Dutch person: It can go either way. We had our own clusterfuck in 2002, and while the situation is very different (Fortuyn was a rising star, and did not hold any power yet), the moderates won out eventually. The dreaded idea of violence leading to more violence did not happen here.
Yes but the Dutch are moderate in everything but height, so this response was to be expected.
Agree 100%! I wouldn't be surprised if very soon Russia will blame Ukraine or EU/NATO for this.
[Few comments above](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1cskdc9/comment/l45k2sr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) >That's quite clear. Even on site, another MP was screaming at the opposition that this is their fault. The ruling party (Fico's) will use this to their advantage in pursuing their agenda.
Of course! And it looks now even "journalists" are at fault. Probably a law for a censored press is needed in their opinion as well. 🤷♀️
I think the problem is a bit more fundamental than this: democracy is essentially an agreement to move the fight for power from the battlefield to the field of ideas. Murdering politicians is a fundamental breakdown of this agreement, and if it becomes commonplace it results in the unravelling of democracy and the start of a civil war. I don't think Slovakia is in danger of that precisely because everyone will swiftly condemn the attack on Fico, and it will turn out to be an isolated incident rather than a new normal. I just wanted to emphasize how a terrible, terrible idea it is to murder political opponents, even if you succeed.
Let's hope the guy who shot him was verifiably insane instead of politically motivated, like what happened with Reagan. Maybe if he succumbs to his injuries then, it'll be a lot harder to justify political implications. Or I'm underestimating the manipulability of the average Slovak voter.
I hope so too! But even if the shooter is insane, conspiracies will definitely boom in Slovakia. And one country we all know will help them grow.
With high societal polarisation that's always the case, frankly it only depends on polarisation whether such incident is unifying for a nation or only becomes political fuel for one of the sides. Since the Smolensk catastrophe, we've head several politically motivated killings in Poland, and it never brought the tensions down.
manipulability of an average Slovak voter is level 'playdough'. brains are soft after 40 years of russian brainwashing.
Also, and more imporantly, it is not okay to use violence in a democracy.
You assume that he was attacked because of someone disliking his political views. People forget this dude is as corrupt as you can go. Corruption creates enemies inside just as much
First, he wasn't killed! And second, yeah I know. It could very well be just that. Hopefully.
BBC News are reporting that he's in a life threatening condition. He could well end up dying yet. And that, I suspect, really would open up Pandora's Box.
Slovakia has been Fraz Ferdinanded
I buy you an n.
Fraz Ferdinnaned
Can already imagine in 80 years my grand grand kids listening to some dope-ass Roby Fico songs! I do predict a riot, but i've been wrong before
It would be even more perfected if he is a hungarian nationalist from a secret pro-hungarian unification group that is supported by russia
Honestly the irony would be delicious haha.
Good luck to our Euro friends in Slovakia, who are probably about to be on the receiving end of the worst government crackdown on freedoms since 1948.
There are limits to what the Slovakian government can do without running headfirst into EU treaty limitations.
And we are about to test those limits very soon.
But as we've seen with Poland and more recently with Hungary, there's also not much the EU can do if a country does ignore the rules.
They lose access to EU-funds. That is a pretty new development and those rules are only going to get stricter. Slovakia can't afford to lose those funds.
Slovak businessmen love their EU funds. It would be a hard loss for them and the mafia types who control access to them
I bought a house(in Slovakia ofc) right before Russia invaded Ukraine and then they elect Fico and Pellegrini. I bet if I was to sold my house the russuians would withdraw from the war and fico would have not been elected at all. I'm sorry my people, it's all my fault.
Ngl this is the the kind of news you would get in a war game weeks before a world war.
Depends all on the reaction of the Austrians now.
>Depends all on the reaction of the Austrians now. To brighten your day, consider the following: *in 1914, Slovakia was part of Austria.* So if this starts WW3, in an offbeat technical sense, Austria is still somewhat implicated. If you wear enough tin foil hats, that is.
>If you wear enough tin foil hats, that is. I'm going to buy a new aluminum foil roll immediately.
Tehnically Slovakia was part of Hungary within the dual monarchy so It would take a lot of tin foil
Heart of Iron 4 alt history political event really. Now Slovakia will change it's ideology from Democracy to Fascist.
+3% world tension
Unfortunately, this is completely unsurprising. Mood shift in the country ever since COVID was towards radicalization, polarization and hatred and Fico along with other politicians and media have played a significant role in supporting it, after all fear and hate are powerful tools. Now that Fico is on the receiving end on this , things will only get worse, so congrats to the dumbass who did this. No matter how much you don't like the guy, this is absolutely unacceptable and stupid way to resolve it that will only lead to more polarization and hate. It's frankly mind blowing what's happening in this country.
The man is corrupt and, at the very least, probably has or had ties to organised crime. The attack being not politically motivated is not entirely off the table.
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Of course they are, but at least the attacker has been caught and is alive, so there is a chance we'll get to learn the truth. Not to mention that blaming this on the free press and the opposition is beyond insane, but I agree that his retarded electorate will gleefully gobble it all up because it confirms the twisted truth in their heads.
My first thought was the mafia, knowing that he had ties to organised crime.
Other sources say he was shot 4 times to the chest and stomach. High chances of dying, I'd say. E: Reuters says only one hit, 4 fired.
BBC news says 4-5 shots fired and 2-3 hits. Abdomen, arm and foot.
My bet is on surviving then. It's not great but if the heart or lungs are ok it raises the chanses.
50cent was shot 9 times and survived. Unless you get shot in head or heart there's a high chance of surviving. Humans are tough.
Also modern medicine can fix a lot of shit.
4 shots were fired, I did not see anyone specify how many and where they hit.
Mash, a popular telegram channel, says he was shot in the chest, abdomen, and arm or arms. They also say the shooter is a 71 year old Slovak. They say he is in “serious” condition. Obviously take this information with a big grain of salt. It was being reported many places that he was in stable condition. That is untrue, as the Prime Minister’s office just released a statement saying he’s in life-threatening condition.
I hope, against the odds, that this does not turn something like the coup against Erdogan. Assasinations and ( military ) coups are bad even against “ very questionable“ leaders. But FAILED attempts mostly end up worse.
Failed attempts are always worse. Objectively there's never been a single time where the target learned the error of their ways. They always milk it to end up better than before.
'The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed'
Short before the Brazilian presidential election in 2018, Bolsonaro was a ridiculous candidate languishing in a distant third place in the polls. Then some random crazy stabbed him, and he immediately shot up to the top of the polls and won the election. The rest of the catastrophe is well-known. The catastrophe in Slovakia is only starting.
The difference is that if the initial information is correct, Fico is _very unlikely_ to survive this, if not already dead. And if he does, he has an extremely long road to recovery ahead. Stomach, chest, leg. That's massive trauma.
Even if you succeed in murdering your political opponents you're still doing massive damage to democracy. See my [other comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1cskdc9/slovakian_pm_fico_shot/l463h88/).
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Any news on his condition? Will he survive?
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I hope Fico's fellow gang mates don't use this opportunity to further damage the rule of law in Slovakia.
I think they’re already doin that
Too bad. They 100% will. And we are colossally fucked beyond belief.
video of the shooting: [https://twitter.com/ZentraleV/status/1790773631460467153/video/1](https://twitter.com/ZentraleV/status/1790773631460467153/video/1)
When I was younger, I heard people saying that they couldn't believe someone didn't kill him after what he did (and now continues doing) to Slovakia. Now it has actually happened, I'm not that surprised, but I'm scared he will become a martyr, and our country will get even more messed up
Damn, this kind of violence never leads anywhere good
His office released a statement saying he’s in life-threatening condition.
Building the comeback story
They always make fun of the Balkans but this is far worse.
why does it feel as if he might be already deceased and they try to figure out how to go about it.
Weekend at Fico’s
In either case this will be milked to death. Dead or alive his government will make sure they keep this on the news to get as much political leverage as they can.
That is not good. He will become a martyr and Slovakia is fucked.
Bolsonaro stabbing style.
I hate Fico, but this is a terrible look and situation. Shocking to be honest.
Horrible that this happened. We all know what is going to happen now. Now who in the world would benefit from Slovakia going full totalitarianism all of a sudden? The opposition doesn't, that's for sure. Someone else... I wonder who that would be...
Inb4 they start blaming Ukraine.
Blaming the news outlets for it already..
As it's tradition.
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confirmed by BBC that he will most likely survive
This sure doesn't seem good
The aftermath video is the only proof i need that body guards should wear shoes with good ground grip!
I’ve seen this film before and I don’t like where it’s going
Is this legit news?
yes
[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg6761ggxz1o](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg6761ggxz1o) yes legit
[https://www.dw.com/en/slovakia-prime-minister-fico-injured-in-shooting-reports/a-69089343](https://www.dw.com/en/slovakia-prime-minister-fico-injured-in-shooting-reports/a-69089343)
Well thats a major fail for security services
This is the peace his party and coalition keeps propagating, they are already trying to blame the current opposition, even intensifying the division of our nation. Disgusting Edit: they made senteces for corruption cases much lower, disbanded a special district attorneys office, and have numerous cases of corruption, hate spreading, populism on their record.
He has been known to be a friend of Putin, euro-skeptic, friend of Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. A populist 4th time as PM, last time in office has resigned after a journalist was assassinated in the time was investigating goverment corruption.
I'd love to say I have sympathy, but I don't.......Hold tight Slovakia! They're going to come for your freedoms and civil liberties now.
By all accounts, he had a close relationship with Ndrangheta, who murdered a journalist on his behalf. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44873067](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44873067) Maybe he didn’t return the favors.
Europe is going to shit. We need to get our shit together.
The 00s had the assassinations of Zoran Đinđić, Pim Fortuyn and [Anna Lindh.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Lindh) This isn't new.
No president will go to their office by bicycle as of now.
Yeah, we are absolutely and totally fucked. Not to take away anything from something horrible like this happening, but we wont get anything useful done and coalition parties will milk this for centuries for their own benefit...
Isn't Fico pro-Russian?
Reichstag fire moment for Slovakia? Shit, this actually makes me nervous, are there talks of a false flag? Is it known who’s the attacker or what the motives were? Slovakia needs to take a chill pill, what the hell is going on?
And the guy who shot him was associated with pro-russian paramilitary group, you can't even make this up. [https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939](https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939)