Concern continues this Thursday about the situation of the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, who this Wednesday a man shot for not agreeing with his ideology. Fico remains serious and his team is not optimistic. According to the investigation, the attacker is a ‘lone wolf’ who became radicalized after the last elections in the country. Beyond the motivations, there are some blunders observed in terms of security if the sequence of events is reviewed. These errors would have allowed the attack.

According to experts, the first failure occurs when, in a very polarized Slovakia, Fito is allowed say hello at a short distance to a group made up of about twenty people. Yago Rodríguez, director of ‘The Political Room’, describes it as “the typical dilemma of the politician who wants to be close and the security apparatus asking him not to approach because they cannot control who passes by.” A group of supposed followers who they had not been minimally registered. “We could have shown our hands empty,” says a witness to the events.

The second mistake would come from this agent, the one furthest to the right of the prime minister. And this bodyguard does not realize that the attacker, just a few centimeters away from him, take out the gun. Very similar to the third failure. If they look between the first and fifth shots, up to three seconds pass, during which time none of the agents get in the path of the bullets nor do they tear down the fence to prevent Cintula from continuing to shoot.

However, there is a fourth flaw that lies in the protection that Fico receives after the attack. No one from the security team covers him at the moment that is evacuated in flight towards the official car without having previously checked that there were no more attackers. All these possible negligence, for which an investigation has already been opened, have now forced the security of the other Slovak ministers to be reinforced.

In the images that accompany these lines you can see the five point-blank shots for which the Slovak Prime Minister had to undergo several emergency surgeries for five hours. The main one was due to the impact of one of the bullets in the abdominal area. The director of the hospital, Miriam Lapunikova, has assured that “his condition has stabilized, but he is very serious.” In fact, on this Thursday afternoon will undergo another operationin this case hip.

Fico knew something like this would happen

“I am waiting for this frustration, so intensely deepened by the Dennikom channel, the SME newspaper or the Aktuality portal, to turn into the assassination of one of the government’s main politicians. And I am not exaggerating even a millimeter,” he predicted on December 10. April, the same prime minister on TV Noviny. This is a premonition that was also in itself an incendiary proclamation against left-wing media. Furthermore, coming from a politician who long ago succumbed to demagoguery and agitation as fertilizer to garner votes.

Beyond the unanimous condemnation of the attack, the president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova – who has resigned from re-election out of fear after her house was raided – called at noon this Thursday on all politicians, in general, to ” calm society.” Along these lines, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, has also spoken: ”This violates the very idea of ​​democracy. In democracy we can disagree, but violence is absolutely unacceptable.”

Polarization, a very sharp double-edged sword

Agitating masses already dissatisfied with a system that presents a crisis over the cost of living or inequalities can win votes, but it can also easily get out of hand through violent acts like what happened this Wednesday. Ruth Ferrero, professor of Political Science at the Complutense Institute of International Studies, points out that “we have to worry, but before this episode.”

In his eyes, “no one is exempt from being attacked in this highly tense and politically polarized context.” A division in society for which Ferrero assures “the political class itself and the exacerbation of some tensions by some media are responsible,” the expert has criticized.

However, situations like this have already been seen in tense moments such as Brexit with the tremendous murder of British MEP Jo Cox, but also now with European elections just around the corner. Without going any further this week, several attacks on progressive politicians in Germany have been known. In short, polarization is a double-edged sword that is very sharp at the moment.

Fico, a socialist politician who came to the side of nationalism

It is clear that violence is not the way, at least, in democracy. However, Robert Fico, a socialist converted into a nationalisthas been getting closer in recent times to a speech very similar to that of Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, and consequently, that of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. In fact, the Slovak, in addition to being a populist, has also declared himself pro-Russian and intolerant of immigration.

Proof of his populist attitude is his know-how when it comes to using it to his advantage. the unrest of the less favored classes of his country. A point widely used by Fico has been the skyrocketing inflation in the country, which he used to reverse his aid to Ukraine and, consequently, get closer to Putin’s positions.

His intolerance towards immigration means, for example, that he is not very willing to lend a hand in the solidarity distribution of migrants promoted by the European Union. Gay rights also choke him and he is also not willing to accept same-sex marriage, a speech very similar to that of his Hungarian counterpart.

At 59 years old, he has already been through great power twice. During his first term he was the architect of Slovakia’s entry into the Eurozone in 2008 and in 2023 he was eager to return to power after having been absent since 2018 when a wave of popular protests led him to abandon political life after being accused of dealings with the mafiaand even ordering the murder of a journalist, supposedly.

Juraj Cintula, the writer turned ‘lone wolf’

For his part, the shooter was recorded a few weeks ago in the protest against the prime minister, whose images are included in the main video of this news. This individual, a 71-year-old writer named Juraj Cintula, is defined by the Slovak Government as a ‘lone wolf’ radicalized after the presidential elections held in the country. In fact, Cintula justifies the attack against Fico for the suspension by his Executive of aid to Ukraine, but also for his control of the media and the judiciary.