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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.”
