Fico: Attacks in Slovakia probable

But President Andrej Kiska says the exact opposite, citing information from security services.

PM Robert FicoPM Robert Fico (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)

The probability of individual terrorist attacks in Slovakia is high, Prime Minister Robert Fico told a July 29 press conference. But President Andrej Kiska however told the Sme daily one day before that Slovakia is under no immediate threat of terrorist attacks.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

“After the Nice attacks, when the director of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) called me to explain what was happening and reassured me that there is no threat of terrorist attacks in Slovakia,” Kiska told Sme in late July.

Read also: Kiska: Fear is the easiest way to popularity Read more 

“I have asked the SIS director to use all his capacities to fulfill their legal duty,” Fico told journalists and added that SIS should in the first place focus on the cooperation with its counterparts in other European countries.

SkryťTurn off ads

Fico also repeated his earlier claims that the terrorist attacks are connected with the arrival of refugees to Europe. Individual terrorists have used the migration wave as an opportunity to get to Europe, he said as reported by the Sme daily.

Read also: As EU presidency looms, Fico goes anti-Muslim again Read more 

Slovakia is taking all the measures possible, Fico stated.

While he stressed that citizens should not understand his words as fear mongering, observers have interpreted his press conference as an attempt to score political points by appealing to fears.

“Provoking fear is always the easiest way to gain popularity,” Kiska said in the interview for the Sme daily before Fico’s press conference, and added that while previously the fears were directed against Hungarians or against Roma, now it is against the migrants. “It’s basically easier to fear-monger than to explain this new phenomenon.”

Top stories

The New Stations of the Cross combine old and new.

New Stations of the Cross to combine surviving remains and contemporary architecture.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad