The Slovak Prime Minister was shot Wednesday afternoon after a cabinet meeting.Continue reading
“Everyone was heartbroken and shaken by the assassination attempt. The fact of assassinations is always surprising, but the fact that the level of violence is rising in Europe is no surprise to anyone,” Viktor Orbán said on Kossuth Radio’s Good Morning, Hungary! program about the attack on the Slovak Prime Minister.
The Hungarian Prime Minister noted that there had been terrorist attacks in Europe in recent years, then came the war and Europe began to be transformed from a pro-peace to a pro-war Europe. Central Europe is a risky area, he said, adding that he remembers well when Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was shot dead in 2003, reports Magyar Nemzet.
“Europe’s position has radically changed now,” he underlined. He pointed out that European leaders were already discussing sending troops to Ukraine. Violence has become part of everyday life. It is a tangible process in Europe,” the Prime Minister added.
He stressed that the EU’s primary mission is to build peace, which is why Hungary became a member. “After such an attack, we need strong faith to maintain this conviction,” Viktor Orbán noted, “but the Hungarian right continues to believe that Europe means peace.
We badly needed a pro-peace Slovakia, because after the elections, our northern neighbor started on the road to peace.
This helped us a lot, and now we have lost this support,” he said. The Prime Minister emphasized that so far, the Vatican, Hungary, and Slovakia were on the side of peace, but the Vatican does not vote in the Union, leaving Hungary virtually alone.
He added that “the perpetrator was a progressive, left-wing, pro-war. There are great forces behind the pro-war politicians, behind the pro-war stance. There are big players who have a vested interest in ensuring that this war continues and even expands.” He pointed out that the fact that an assassin had thwarted the pro-peace process of the Slovaks coincided with certain developments in the war. “The pro-war parties are negotiating with each other. The head of the Soros empire and the U.S. Secretary of State visited Kiev recently. They want to give more and more money. Hungary has fought to stop Hungarian money going to Ukraine, but we are still sending it as part of a joint EU loan.”
As Hungary Today previously reported, on Thursday morning, Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák announced that the head of government underwent a five-hour life-saving operation and his condition is stable but very serious. According to the hospital’s deputy director, the Prime Minister was operated on by two medical teams and remains in intensive care.
That afternoon, the Minister gave further details: “Four bullets hit Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the assassination attempt on him, together they caused him very serious injuries and although his condition has been stabilized, he is not yet out of critical condition.” He added: “Unfortunately, for the time being, it is not possible to say that we are on the verge of victory or that the outlook is positive, because the four bullets together caused such serious injuries that the head of government’s body is finding it very difficult to cope with them.”
On Friday morning, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called Peter Ziga, the interim President of the Slovak Parliament, to ask about the condition of the Slovak Prime Minister. “My friend Peter said that the situation is looking more hopeful as the days go by, but it will take a few more days before they can say for sure whether the Slovak Prime Minister will recover,” the Foreign Minister wrote on Facebook. He added: “We agreeed that the politically motivated assassination attempt on Robert Fico is a serious attack on Slovak democracy and sovereign Slovak politics based on the will of the people.”
UPDATE (Friday, 2 p.m.): Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák and Miriam Lapuníková, director of the hospital in Banská Bystrica, held a press conference in the early afternoon, confirming that the Slovak Prime Minister had undergone another operation on Friday.
Via Magyar Nemzet, MTI; Featured image: Facebook/Orbán Viktor