By Athena Papakosta

The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, is recovering after the assassination attempt against him in the city of Hadlova at noon on Wednesday. At the same time, Europe has not yet recovered from the shock as it is the first time in at least 20 years that a European politician has been targeted again.

In less than a month from today, the European elections will be held and the political climate in the Union of “27” was already quite polarized. In Germany alone, in recent days, attacks against politicians and non-politicians have increased. Last week, a female politician from Berlin was attacked and suffered head and neck injuries. A few days ago, a member of the ruling SPD was attacked while trying to post election posters. He was injured so badly that he had to undergo surgery.

At the same time, yesterday, Thursday, Belgium’s Prime Minister, Alexander De Croix, speaking on his country’s radio and television station, VRT, said that he had filed a complaint against a radio producer for allegedly calling on listeners to his show to shoot him.

In particular, according to Belgian media, the producer emphasized, referring to the attempted assassination of Fitzo, that “those who are thinking of shooting Alexander de Croix, but don’t dare because of his security men, you can see how it is possible to shoot a prime minister . Therefore, I will say: proceed freely.’

The political environment in Europe has changed. The extreme right is on the rise, while the political discourse, in recent years, has become more aggressive.

The case of Slovakia is quite indicative. Robert Fitzo, by investing in the controversial political discourse, managed to return to power last fall, securing his third term as prime minister.

In the pre-election arena, the masks fell and he did not want to hide his pro-Russian, anti-American agenda, which includes a foreign policy that is not very pro-European, a tougher stance against immigrants and stricter policies against the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

In just a few months in office, he has frozen military aid to neighboring Ukraine, disbanded the special prosecutor’s office and introduced a bill to restructure the country’s public broadcaster RTVS and better government control it.

For Brussels, Robert Fitzo is a controversial prime minister who is rolling back the rule of law in the country. But, as the Associated Press news agency notes, the prime minister of Slovakia may be a threat to democracy, but the level of violence in Slovakia is a greater threat to European democracy.

Like all Member States, Slovakia is also preparing for the holding of European elections from June 6 to 9. According to analysts, after such events, the luck of the cooler voices seems less than that of the more extreme political formations. As they explain, in times of instability and polarizing times like today, parties and personalities like those of Robert Fitzo now have a better chance of being a choice at the ballot box. And Europe is once again at a critical political turning point.