Saturday’s try on US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s life despatched shockwaves internationally. In its aftermath, commentators have pointed to the rising polarisation in the US and the previous president’s divisive rhetoric.
Enjoying on individuals’s fears and inspiring hatred could also be efficient populist instruments, however in addition they are inclined to backfire. Slovaks know this all too nicely, having skilled the shock of their very own Prime Minister Robert Fico’s assassination try, amid his polarising third time period in workplace.
Simply two months in the past, a 71-year-old self-described poet and safety guard fired a number of photographs on the prime minister at shut vary within the city of Handlová as he was strolling out of a gathering. The assailant was reportedly motivated by his disagreement with the Fico authorities’s media and international insurance policies.
Within the aftermath of the incident, cross-party condemnation of political violence was not sufficient to bridge the deep divide between Fico’s conservative, pro-Kremlin base and the opposition’s pro-Ukraine, progressive-liberal supporters.
Identical to within the US, the place now Republicans are blaming Democrats for the try on Trump’s life, high-level authorities officers in Slovakia had been fast to accuse the media and the opposition of inciting the assailant.
The ruling coalition used the incident as a pretext to double down on insurance policies it was already pursuing although they had been polarising society. This, mixed with persevering with divisive rhetoric from Fico and his allies, threatens Slovak democracy and political stability.
In February, the federal government handed controversial amendments to the Felony Code, eliminating the Particular Prosecutor’s Workplace answerable for investigating severe legal offences of corruption and collusion with legal teams. Different provisions shortened the statute of limitations on financial crimes and abolished some financial offences. This transfer was largely perceived as an try to undermine the rule of regulation to guard figures near Fico.
In March, the cupboard took daring steps to restructure public broadcasting, undermining media independence and flouting European Union rule of regulation requirements. In an specific legislative process, it proposed a novel media invoice to exchange the present public broadcasting group with a brand new entity, whose director-general and programme content material might be influenced by the federal government.
These insurance policies had been seen as a serious blow to the nation’s democratisation course of and sparked massive protests in Bratislava as civil society and the opposition expressed issues that Fico was steering the nation within the path of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
After the assassination try, Fico and his authorities continued in the identical polarising path.
In early June, whereas nonetheless recovering, the prime minister made a video handle blaming the assassination try on the “unsuccessful and annoyed” opposition, warning that if his political rivals proceed “on their present path”, there could be “extra victims”.
His allies and coalition companions have additionally continued to assault the opposition and its supporters. Lately, for instance, authorities officers accused former Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad of “treason” and “sabotage” and launched an investigation towards him for offering fighter jets and air defences to Ukraine.
Fico’s authorities has additionally sought to additional curb fashionable protests. In June, it launched to parliament a set of legislative modifications generally known as “Lex Assassination”, which prohibit protests close to public figures’ houses and the assorted seats of energy or within the instances the place a person’s privateness could be infringed. The laws additionally endows sure officers, together with the serving prime minister, with a lifetime monetary annuity, use of state property, safety and different advantages.
The Lex Assassination, which was handed in a hurried vogue, de facto will increase the non-public achieve of public officers and stifles residents’ proper to free meeting beneath the pretence of enhancing public order and nationwide safety.
Fico’s cupboard has additionally maintained polarising rhetoric even at worldwide fora. On the finish of Could, it refused to endorse amendments to the Worldwide Well being Laws that had been negotiated beneath the sponsorship of the World Well being Group (WHO) to assist enhance the world’s pandemic preparedness. Slovakia is the solely nation to reject them. In June, Nationwide Social gathering MP Peter Kotlár, who represented Slovakia on the WHO negotiations, declared there had been no pandemic.
In a rustic that’s already susceptible to polarisation and perception in conspiracy theories, the insurance policies and rhetoric of Fico’s authorities solely gas them additional. The implications might be dire. Pandemic denialism feeds into the erosion of belief in scientific and medical establishments, which may have lethal repercussions come the subsequent pandemic. It must also be alarming that in a latest survey, about 20 % of respondents stated they didn’t imagine the Earth is spherical.
Polarising rhetoric will also be harmful. The assassination try illustrates the extent to which political discourse in Slovakia has degraded, teetering on the sting the place violence is deemed a official type of expression.
In the meantime, the opposition is in a fragile place to problem Fico’s power-grabbing ambitions and freedoms-curbing insurance policies. Having been blamed for the assassination, it has to tread rigorously as any criticism of the prime minister and his allies could also be spun as additional assaults on the nation.
However home polarisation and political violence are harmful not simply inside the borders of the nation, because the instances of each Slovakia and the US illustrate. They will even have a destabilising impact on allies and neighbours.
Populists like Fico and Orbán undermine the EU’s energy and effectiveness in pushing via important insurance policies. That the Orbán-led hard-right political faction Patriots for Europe has turn out to be the third main drive within the European Parliament hardly bodes nicely for the union.
That’s the reason the EU ought to play a extra proactive function in difficult Fico’s media insurance policies, modifications to the penal code and judiciary reforms. It could accomplish that by making use of the identical techniques it has with Hungary – withholding funds.
Brussels must also help Slovak media and civil society in combating misinformation, falsehoods and hate speech on-line and offline. Assist from European companions and the worldwide neighborhood can be indispensable in making certain that the present political turbulence is merely a brief setback on the trail to Slovakia’s long-term democratisation, fairly than a everlasting and harmful deviation.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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