The attempted assassination of US presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday shocked the world. In the aftermath, commentators have pointed to the United States’ growing polarisation and the former president’s divisive rhetoric.
Playing on people’s fears and encouraging hatred may be effective populist tactics, but they also have a tendency to backfire. Slovaks understand this all too well, having witnessed their own Prime Minister Robert Fico’s assassination attempt during his polarising third term in office.
Just two months ago, a 71-year-old self-described poet and security guard opened fire on the prime minister as he was leaving a meeting in Handlová. The assailant was reportedly motivated by his dissatisfaction with the Fico administration’s media and foreign policy.
Following the incident, cross-party condemnation of political violence failed to bridge the deep divide between Fico’s conservative, pro-Kremlin base and the opposition’s pro-Ukraine, progressive-liberal supporters.
Just as Republicans in the United States are now blaming Democrats for Trump’s assassination attempt, high-level government officials in Slovakia were quick to accuse the media and the opposition of inciting the attacker.
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