PM Orbán shared fake news about the assassination attempt of Slovak premier Robert Fico

“Violence must stop! We must go to vote for peace on June 9!”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Facebook on Thursday. PM Orbán said a left-wing activist tried to kill Robert Fico, but he was not right.

Slovak authorities refuted Orbán

Orbán said that thanks to the change of government in Slovakia, the country had started out on the road towards being pro-peace. This was great help for Hungary and “now this process has been halted, shot through”.

“A left-wing activist has committed an attack against the Slovak prime minister. Robert Fico has dropped out of work in the most important months. We trust that he will recover but now we must be fighting for peace alone,” he added.

“From now on, we must be fighting alone, at double strength. The European election has greater significance than ever before”, Orbán said.

According to AP news, a “lone wolf” is charged with the assassination attempt on the Slovak prime minister. The media outlet added that the perpetrator “acted alone in a politically motivated attack.”

PM Orbán using the Fico-assassination attempt to help his EP election campaign? Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

According to 444.hu, Orbán addressed Juraj Cintula left-wing activist due to a mistranslation. The Slovakian „levický” and „ľavicový” words are very similars. However, their meaning is different. The former means somebody is from Léva (Levice in Slovakian), a town in Central Slovakia. Meanwhile, the latter means left-wing. Mr Cintula was born in Levice in 1953.

Spokesman: Orbán’s Fidesz embody “the pledge of peace”

Hungary, the country’s prime minister and the governing Fidesz party embody “the pledge of peace” in central Europe and Europe more broadly, Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international relations and communications told journalists at a campaign stop in eastern Hungary on Thursday.

Referring to the attempt against the life of Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, Kovács said the attack underscored the stakes in the June 9 European and local elections, saying Fico stood for peace and this “literally required sacrifice”.

More and more countries had advocated for peace in recent weeks. “We are now on our own on the European stage,” he said.

He said Hungary’s campaign for peace was not an election issue but had started even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and when the war started Hungary had urged there to be “no bloodshed”.

Kovács said a resolution must be found through negotiations. “I’m convinced this is possible,” he said, adding that a vote for Fidesz was “a vote for peace”.

Read also:

• FM Szijjártó: Voters to choose between pro-peace, pro-war sides in June elections rather than left and right
• New Hungarian Tisza party is already the strongest opposition force