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 likely to backfire. Slovaks know this all too effectively, 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 overseas 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.
Similar to within the US, the place now Republicans are blaming Democrats for the try on Trump’s life, high-level authorities officers in Slovakia have 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 even supposing they have 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 Prison Code, eliminating the Particular Prosecutor’s Workplace accountable for investigating critical prison offences of corruption and collusion with prison 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 categorical 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 have been seen as a significant blow to the nation’s democratisation course of and sparked massive protests in Bratislava as civil society and the opposition expressed considerations 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 deal with blaming the assassination try on the “unsuccessful and annoyed” opposition, warning that if his political rivals proceed “on their present path”, there can 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 in opposition to him for offering fighter jets and air defences to Ukraine.
Fico’s authorities has additionally sought to additional curb widespread protests. In June, it launched to parliament a set of legislative adjustments referred to as “Lex Assassination”, which prohibit protests close to public figures’ properties and the varied seats of energy or within the circumstances the place a person’s privateness can 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 private 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 Might, it refused to endorse amendments to the Worldwide Well being Laws that have 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 Get together MP Peter Kotlár, who represented Slovakia on the WHO negotiations, declared there had been no pandemic.
In a rustic that’s already liable to polarisation and perception in conspiracy theories, the insurance policies and rhetoric of Fico’s authorities solely gasoline them additional. The results could be dire. Pandemic denialism feeds into the erosion of belief in scientific and medical establishments, which might have lethal repercussions come the subsequent pandemic. It must also be alarming that in a latest survey, about 20 p.c 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 respectable 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 fastidiously 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 throughout the borders of the nation, because the circumstances 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 power and effectiveness in pushing by important insurance policies. That the Orbán-led hard-right political faction Patriots for Europe has turn out to be the third main power within the European Parliament hardly bodes effectively for the union.
That’s the reason the EU ought to play a extra proactive function in difficult Fico’s media insurance policies, adjustments to the penal code and judiciary reforms. It could actually accomplish that by making use of the identical ways it has with Hungary – withholding funds.
Brussels must also assist Slovak media and civil society in combating misinformation, falsehoods and hate speech on-line and offline. Help from European companions and the worldwide group will likely be indispensable in making certain that the present political turbulence is merely a short lived 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 mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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