At least some appear concerned the shooting of a NATO member Prime Minister by a pro-Ukraine extremist earlier this year didn’t succeed in killing the target, as Slovak’s Robert Fico has a bullet posted to his office.
Constitutional protection officers screening letters addressed to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico inspected a suspicious package on Wednesday, discovering by X-ray it contained a single bullet. Bratislava regional police spokesman, Michal Szeiff confirms his officers have taken over the investigation into the death threat which comes just months after Fico himself was shot repeatedly at point-blank range by a would-be political assassin.
Fico ally Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok has said it will only be a matter of time until the sender is found.
Slovak publication the Konzervativny Dennik Postoj notes the Slovak Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka said sending a bullet to the Prime Minister was a reckless, callous act and a criminal one too. Calling for colling of sentiment — similar appeals already having been made after Fico was shot — Žilinka said: “I strongly appeal to the whole society for elementary decency and humanity! The cynicism and hatred with which our society is overgrown must stop”.
Prime Minister Fico was shot several times at point-blank range as he left a political meeting at a local town hall. The left-wing populist politician had gone to shake hands with waiting members of the public before getting into his official car when the gunman, a left-wing poet and activist fired five times.
Fico was injured in the gut, hip, arm, leg, and his small intestine was perforated five times. The Prime Minister came close to death but was rushed to hospital by helicopter and received emergency surgery, saving his life.
After his arrest, the political activist gunman identified as Juraj Cintula was reportedly keen to cooperate with police and confessed, telling them he decided to shoot Fico because of his position on the Ukraine war. Fico has prevented Slovakia from becoming involved in the conflict as other NATO nation states have. As reported then:
While Cintula said he disagreed with several of Fico’s policies and political reforms, according to the document the gunman’s main gripe was with the government not providing military aid to Ukraine. It read that what the gunman “mainly wants is military aid to be provided to Ukraine”, and was concerned that Fico’s government is seen as a “Judas” by the European Union.
Fico won the Slovak national elections last year on a platform that included disentangling the country from the war in Ukraine, which he claims would be better resolved with negotiation — even if that means Ukraine ceding some territory to Moscow — rather than battle.
Fico is clearly not the only Western political leader to have been subjected to an assassination attempt this year, and the Slovak spoke out when U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet, saying it was the work of those who wished to shut Trump up. He said: “The political opponents of [Donald Trump] try to shut him up and when that fails, they antagonise the public so much that some loser picks up a gun”.