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Mon, Dec 23, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 22, 1446 | DXB
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Slovak PM says Trump attack 'photocopy' of own shooting
Trump's political opponents are trying to silence him and when they don't succeed, they annoy the public so much that some poor guy grabs a gun, says Fico
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico speaks during the 2024 Harvest Day in Slovenska Nova Ves, on July 8, 2024. — Reuters file
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Sunday said he saw close similarities between an attack on Donald Trump and the one he suffered in May.
The former US president was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally on Saturday
Fico, 59, was hit by four bullets from close range after a government meeting in central Slovakia on May 15. He underwent two lengthy surgeries in a nearby hospital and returned to work last week.
"The scenario is like a photocopy," the Slovak leader said on his website.
The nationalist-leaning Fico accused the liberal Slovak opposition of inciting hatred against him.
"If Donald Trump's attacker spoke Slovak, he would have only had to read the (local) newspapers Dennik N, Sme or Aktuality to want to 'set things right'," Fico said on Sunday.
"Trump's political opponents are trying to silence him and when they don't succeed, they annoy the public so much that some poor guy grabs a gun."
Fico leads a three-party coalition of his centrist Smer-SD party, the centrist Hlas party and the far-right SNS party in governing the EU and Nato member state of 5.4 million people.
He has also called on Slovakia to build a wall to stop "progressive and liberal ideologies", comparing them to a cancer.
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