On May 16th, 2024, Slovak Prime Minister Róbert Fico became the subject of a shooting as he was greeting people in front of a cultural community center, shortly after attending a government meeting. Fico had to undergo an operation after being shot four times at close range, which resulted in serious injuries to his stomach.

Less than two months after this incident, on July 13th, the US President, Donald Trump, fell victim to a shooting during his rally when a shooter fired multiple shots at him. The President suffered a shot to his ear and was quickly escorted from the event by his bodyguards.

Additionally, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked on June 5th, 2024, while she was just taking a walk on a square in Copenhagen.

When examining these recent attacks, it is vital to acknowledge the rising polarization between political affiliations in Slovakia (and the US). Currently, Fico’s leading party, Smer-SD, has been in power since September last year. As the leader of a populist-nationalist coalition, it gained almost 23% of the parliamentary vote, while the opposition party, PS, with an entirely contrasting political program, obtained nearly 18%. The polarization and division of the nation are therefore apparent. This time, the fueled hatred against another party, with Mr. Fico playing a central role even after surviving the shooting, has escalated to an extreme level. It was confirmed that the shooter was a 71-year-old man who was not a supporter of Fico and was a member of political organizations. Vladimir Putin, Fico’s ally, also reacted to Slovakia’s PM shooting saying ‘There can be no justification for this monstrous crime’. Slovakia is known to be strongly influenced by Russian propaganda with a low level of trust in the media (only 28%); creating an ‘ideal’ environment for searching ‘alternative’ information. Slovakia’s former president, Zuzana Čaputová, has strongly condemned this attack. 

The dangerously high level of concentrated political power has already had severe consequences, as seen in 2018, when investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, who was investigating high-level corruption, was assassinated in his home together with his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová.

In the US, the polarization between Republicans and Democrats has a long history of deep ideological divides. While the exact motives behind the shooting of Donald Trump are not known, it can be speculated that this act stems from the strict division between these two political camps. Mr Fico drew a parallel between his and Trump’s shooting; stating: ‘Political opponents of Donald Trump are trying to imprison him, and when they don’t succeed, they enrage the public so much that some poor bugger picks up a gun.’ Beáta Balogová, editor-in-chief of Denník SME reacts to his words saying that ‘Fico could have expressed regret or hope for the recovery of American democracy instead of attacking his perceived enemies’.

Politicians such as Fico, Trump, and perhaps even Orbán, often polarize society and sometimes fail to address issues with the necessary caution. Now that we have seen where hate speech, disinformation, presidential campaign based on evoking fear in citizens and unfair distribution of  a highly biased magazine in favor of one of the candidates, or accusing the opposition when encountering even the smallest issue, can get us, it is vital that politicians aspire to create a peaceful environment without dividing societies even more.