Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has spoken publicly for the first time since the assassination attempt on him. On Wednesday, Fico published a 14-minute video on Facebook. In the post, Fico said he “forgives” the attacker.
The Prime Minister was shot and critically injured on May 15 after a cabinet meeting in the small town of Handlová. The head of government had to undergo two operations. The suspected assassin, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, is in custody. He is being investigated for attempted murder.
Fico said in the video that he would not take legal action against the assassin or demand compensation. But there is political calculation behind the leniency: Fico is making serious accusations against the opposition that he was partly responsible for the attack.
The shooter was a “messenger of evil and hatred” that the “unsuccessful and frustrated opposition” in Slovakia had developed, said Fico. The opposition, the media critical of the government and NGOs financed from abroad were trivializing the attack and denying any links between the assassin and the opposition. Fico specifically named the American investor George Soros – an enemy image that his ally Viktor Orbán from Hungary also repeatedly uses.
Fico also lashed out at the EU and NATO, of which Slovakia is a member. He accused them of pursuing a policy of the “only correct opinion” – for example in the Ukraine war. Anyone who does not subscribe to the unified opinion is a Russian agent and will be politically isolated. He accused the opposition, which governed from 2020 to 2023, of having “plundered” the weapons depots of the Slovak armed forces for the benefit of Ukraine.
His government, a coalition led by the social democratic Smer-SDD, had restored sovereign Slovak foreign policy with its election victory in 2023. That is why Smer-SDD was expelled from the S
He is not a “political angel,” Fico said towards the end of the video. He can be tough and certainly improve his government work. But the basis of democratic competition must be to allow for different opinions. “It was only a matter of time before such a tragedy occurred,” Fico added. If nothing changes, “there will be more victims.”
Fico was released from hospital at the end of May and is now recovering from the attack at home. He announced that he would return to government at the end of June.