President Zuzana Čaputová announced on Tuesday evening that she would take legal action against opposition leader and former prime minister Robert Fico for comments about her.
Fico, the chair of Smer-SD, has repeatedly called Čaputová an “American agent” and, speaking of her decision to appoint a new caretaker government, said she is “appointing Soros’ government”, referring to US billionaire-philanthropist George Soros.
Fico refused to apologise for his comments even after Čaputová and her family started getting death threats. The police are currently pursuing four criminal proceedings involving dangerous threats levelled at the president.
“Making someone a target with hateful lies has cost people lives already in Slovakia,” Čaputová wrote on social media.
The president spoke out against Fico shortly before she is expected to officially announce her decision on whether she will run for reelection next year.
Čaputová has also taken legal action against the deputy chairman of the Smer party, Ľuboš Blaha, who is known for spreading Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories, over accusations that she is a “traitor”, an “American agent” and a “subject to foreign state interests”. She won the case in court last year.
The president did not say what kind of legal action she intends against Fico.
Fico’s Smer-SD party currently leads the polls ahead of the snap parliamentary elections set for September.
Smer’s pro-Russian rhetoric and strengthened ties with the far-right The Republic party have put the party in hot water at the EU level.
Iratxe García Pérez, chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament – Smer-SD’s political affiliation at the EU group level – recently told EURACTIV that the party is discussing suspending Smer’s membership in the party.
(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
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