Seven weeks after an assassination attempt on his life, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico appeared in public. This took place at Devín Castle during the celebration of the arrival of the Slavic missionaries Cyril and Methodius. He arrived at the end of the event and delivered a speech of about twenty minutes.
The first half of his speech focused on history, Christianity, and the significance of the tradition of Cyril and Methodius. He smoothly segued to current political issues in the second half. “I want to propose a major challenge – we must all together build a huge barrier against the senseless progressive and liberal ideologies that are spreading like cancer. These ideologies are damaging this country. These ideologies are mere upstarts. I don’t want Slovakia to be one of the countries making a caricature of Western civilization,” he said, among other things. He also touched on the assassination attempt on his life and the war in Ukraine. “After the unfortunate event on May 15 of this year in Handlová, we halted any statements that could have been considered inappropriate. I ask a rhetorical question, what would have happened if an opposition representative had been injured by someone associated with the ruling coalition? Do you know what would have happened? The clashes? The demonstrations? The massive expressions of hatred that would have spread throughout Slovakia?” he stated, going on to say: “We are even being criticized for having a clear opinion on the need for a peaceful solution to the military conflict in Ukraine. By the way, excuse my honesty. I want to express my admiration for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for not hesitating and going to both Kyiv and Moscow. If my health allowed it, I would have happily joined him. There are never, I repeat, never enough peace negotiations and peace initiatives.”
After his speech, he received a standing ovation. Among those listening were President Peter Pellegrini, Peter Žiga, who is in charge of running the Parliament, former presidents Ivan Gašparovič and Rudolf Schuster, ministers Robert Kaliňák, Martina Šimkovičová, Boris Susko, Erik Tomáš, Juraj Blanár, Tomáš Drucker, Zuzana Dolinková, and many others.
Left to right Boris Susko, Juraj Blanár, Erik Tomáš, Tomáš Drucker, Martina Šimkovičová, Zuzana Dolinková.
