Robert Fico had huge power but did not use it (writes Beata Balog)
We expected the anniversary of the assassination with concern.
The premiere assassination is a collective trauma that has an impact on the majority of citizens regardless of whether anyone agrees with attitudes Robert Ficoor criticizes it for the way he consumes power.
People looked at the record of the Prime Minister countless times. Again and again. Some did not believe what they saw, because the leaders of the countries were killed in America, not in Slovakia. Dookola asked questions what actually happened and what the consequences of their lives may.
The answer they received from the government’s representatives was: the opposition and journalists, with their hatred of Robert Fico, prompted the effort to liquidate him.
It does not matter how many times the journalists, commentators, representatives of NGOs or some opposition politicians have repeated that they are sincerely sorry about what happened to Robert Fico. The authors of the government story awarded them the role of hateful cuts.
The first instinct of journalists was to collect dehumanizing statements from Robert Fico’s mouth. Or quote Ľuboš BlahaVice -President of the Government Party, who, if he was to be one, whenever he started to spread hatred and misinformation, talk about rags and prostitutes, would never say anything again. However, they were waiting for Robert Fico’s first public speech.
The Prime Minister decided that there would be no reconciliation until every criticism and the nation as one body does not adhere to the Prime Minister and would not support him in every way on his way. However, democracy is not adapted to this type of reconciliation if the injured leader actually decomposes it.
Direction launched a campaign before the anniversary of the assassination, showed Fico’s scars Read
There will not be a reconciliation, we will saddle the trauma
Since then, government officials have been trying to squeeze out the last drops of blood from this tragedy to deter opposition and journalists from government criticism. They do not want to treat collective trauma, they want to deepen it, they want voters to have a constant feeling of threat, they want them to be identified with Fico’s wounds. They want this trauma to work in their favor.
But social traumas serve their breadwinners only temporarily. And they always bring a worsening of the atmosphere in society.
This was also shown by a survey by the NMS agency for the SME daily, according to which the atmosphere in the company year after the assassination of Fico worsened. Even precious coalition voters and opposition voters agree: fifty -six percent of respondents think that the atmosphere in society has worsened, and only three percent see improvement.
If Fico’s terms of reconciliation were to pay, journalists could not criticize him for his trip to the mass murderer Vladimir Putin and civil society could not convene protests to support Ukraineour neighbor, whose Robert Fico accuses disproportionately more often than a real aggressor.
Survey: also Direction Voters see a change to the worse at Fico after the assassination Read
Trauma of the victims of shooting
Many people who survive an attempt to murder, have nightmares, are constantly alert, returning the moments of tragedy at the most heard moments, avoiding situations that remind them of the attack.
According to the National Center for Postraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), up to 28 percent of people who witnessed mass shooting have developed these symptoms. Robert Fico was not just a witness, but an object of such shooting.
Survivor victims of shooting may experience physical symptoms such as tremors, sweating or insomnia for some time after the tragedy, and for a long time disorientation and intense fear.
Such an event can interfere with the beliefs of a person’s safety and justice of the world, it can even question even the beliefs that have built his system of values, and start to subordinate everything to the feeling of protection.
When the assassin in Pennsylvania shot the ear before the presidential election Donald Trumpwho only escaped death, the discussion focused on how this event would affect the outcome of the elections. However, there were also experts and pointed out that society should also deal with how this event would affect the mental health of Trump himself.
Not because they wanted to eliminate it immediately – if Trump did not stop accusations of the abuse of power, it is hard to imagine that his voters would be influenced by the discussion of whether their favorite was neutrpel PTSD. But because they recognized the difficulty of the situation in which he found himself.
Fico’s trauma
In Slovakia, mental health experts have gone further and they formulated their concerns about Robert Fico’s changes in an open letter, which the Prime Minister commented on so that psychologists and psychiatrists misused their profession.
« I have no doubt that you will support the opposition attempt at Slovak Majdan, where the Slovak opposition with full support of NGOs funded by foreign and anti -Slavic media is working hard, » Fico replied in the spirit of the leader’s story under the constant attack of the enemy.
In the survey, I also read the finding that, according to voters, the assassination had a more negative effect than a positive impact on Robert Fico, and I wondered if anything that one passes after such a traumatic event could be called « positive ».
Then I imagined the Prime Minister how to speak to the nation and calm emotions. How it realizes the hopelessness of the policy of discharging fear, confrontation and hatred. How it will want to use this tragedy to treat not only its wounds, but also the society of society.
Everyone listened to him, waiting for every word. At that moment, before the manifestation, albeit hurt and injured, Robert Fico had a huge power.
He did not use this power. He didn’t treat anyone.
Today he calls for security council to talk about hatred that many in its neighborhood simply cannot give up, because it is their only way to speak to the voter.
What about journalists?
We journalists expected the first anniversary of the assassination of Robert Fico with concern. Not because we think that someone would attack another politician, as the government indicated.
Rather because after a press conference Robert Kalinak and Tibor GašparWe understood: They want the wounds to bleed again and silence the opposition and journalists. They want them to drown all their failures, coalition crises, unsuccessful consolidations, criticism of Kallas and Union.
They want the opposition to be paralyzed by allegations that they sowed the seed of anger in the head of the bomber.
And journalists, yes, you know which journalists want the end of Fico and support any means. And we saw Gašpar upset on this press, as the police do not solve a hateful comment on Fico, in which he compares him to Tiso.
But let’s put some things right. Journalists have complained for many years, even during the police presidency Gašpar that the police did not address verbal attacks on their address. The police did not even deal with attacks on Ján Kuciakour murdered colleague.
After the assassination of the Prime Minister, we were watering so much anger, threats and vulgarisms in the editors that we could publish thousands of messages from them. After the first manifestation of Fico, this worsened.
For many years we have remembered the loss of Ján Kuciak. The same people who are now trying to use the assassination against journalists and opposition, the anniversary of the murder of a journalist ignored or accused us of remembering to attack the government and Fico.
We have never written that the assassination did not happen. We are not a source of conspiracy or ease. I do not know a journalist who would not wish to heal Fico, but I know many who will always control how he rules. Because it’s their job.
