Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli Channel 13: The Iranian nuclear program cannot be destroyed with missiles, even if we spend another year attacking it alongside the Americans.
Over 30 casualties in a suicide bombing that targeted the Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria.
Iranian Shura Council recommends the closure of the Hormuz Strait and leaves the decision up to the Iranian National Security Council.
IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Pakpour: As time passes, the people's solidarity increases, which is a divine blessing
IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Pakpour: The Iranian Revolution Guard Corps' aerospace operations will not stop
Russian Foreign Ministry: IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi must ensure that an objective report is presented at the special session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Russian Foreign Ministry: The UN Security Council must respond to the US attacks on Iran
Russian Foreign Ministry: We strongly condemn the US strikes on Iran, calling the decision irresponsible
Iranian Red Crescent: Three personnel martyred, 29 injured in Israeli aggression
IRGC: We have identified and monitored the departure points of the US aircraft that carried out the aggression

Robert Fico -- The ‘Canary in the Mine’ -- The Euro Meta-Narrative Slides Us To Disaster

  • Alastair Crooke Alastair Crooke
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 21 May 2024 00:04
  • 14 Shares
5 Min Read

Slovakia is deeply polarised: There is, on one side, a strongly pro-EU faction, who have scorned particularly the long-serving PM’s opposition to the West’s Ukraine policy.

Listen
  • x
  • Robert Fico -- The ‘Canary in the Mine’ -- The Euro Meta-Narrative Slides Us To Disaster …
    Robert Fico -- The ‘Canary in the Mine’ -- The Euro Meta-Narrative Slides Us To Disaster … (Illustrated by Mahdi Rteil to Al Mayadeen English)

Prime Minister Robert Fico was hit by four bullet rounds from close quarters in an attempted assassination last week. After five hours of surgery, Fico is said no longer to be in life-threatening condition, but his condition is said to be serious. 

The police reportedly have charged a 71 year old poet and writer with attempted murder (an unusual profile for a ‘lone wolf’ attacker).

“At the press conference after the attack”  Politico reports, “Šutaj Eštok, the interior minister, called for an end to the violent language and attacks on social media that have come to define Slovak politics in the Fico era. “I want to appeal to the public, to journalists, and to all politicians to stop spreading hatred”, he said. 

“We are on the verge of civil war.”

One MP from Fico’s Party shouted at the opposition in parliament that Fico “is fighting for his life today because of your hatred.”  Whilst Deputy Speaker Andrej Danko, head of the far-right Slovak National Party, demanded of the opposition: “Are you satisfied?”

Slovakia is deeply polarised: There is, on one side, a strongly pro-EU faction, who have scorned particularly the long-serving PM’s opposition to the West’s Ukraine policy (Fico has been Premier for 11 out of the last 18 years).

The reaction to the attempted assassination in parts of Europe largely however has shown scant sympathy, and in several instances has veered close to the edge of exculpatory. Though, even amongst this current, it is admitted that the campaign against Fico has been ‘toxic’.  He was accused of being pro-Russian, pro-Putin and obstructing support for Ukraine. 

Support for Ukraine has become in Europe the essential entry price to any conversation in Brussels -- It is the entry-price too, to doing any politics in the EU, as Orbán and Meloni have learned.

Finland’s President is but one example of he who follows the mandatory ‘line’: “Ukraine must win this war … no matter what”. “It is facing a huge aggressor, which is violating all rules of war”.

Related News

A Coming Colour Revolution in Slovakia?

From Brussels to Beijing, a wave of economic collapse may be about to strike

Of course, the rational response is, ‘So?’ Does the Finnish President seriously propose that Europe mobilises in order to attack Russia?  Does His Excellency not notice that Ukraine is out-matched by Russia, and that NATO has been out-matched too?  That Ukraine can’t ‘win’?

Should then the Presidential outburst be seen as just ‘narrative’: i.e. as nothing to be taken seriously?  For there is no way that the EU can even contemplate war with Russia.  The proposition is absurd.

That is true -- but nonetheless the language of Europe’s Ruling Strata today is riddled with a fervour for militarism and war (‘prepare for conscription’; move to ‘a defence-security orientated geo-political EU’, etc.).  It is not rational, but rather resembles a mass psychosis affecting the élite class, who are becoming desperate that their ‘Geo-political Europe’ project is unravelling; and that their errors of political and economic judgement are becoming obvious as Europe slides towards an all-too-predictable social and economic crisis.

It is not at all ‘rational’, but these élites understand that Putin and Russia can be used as cypher for the autocratic dark ‘other’ in the (Leo) Straussian conception -- that ‘the enemy’ in a specially intense way is someone different and alien, so that conflicts with ‘him’ are possible, even mandatory (by the nature of who he is).  

More than that,  the very dynamic first of recognition and then destruction of the adversary becomes a crucial component of national identity, or in this case, the EU transnational ‘state’ identity: ‘Democracy fighting autocrats’.

This formulation of an existential enemy so evil and alien implies that communication and relations should be regarded as unimaginable. Even to listen to the other side would be to cross the frontier of acceptable civic behaviour. The ‘Putin/Xi are dictators’ meme is crafted precisely to shut down free speech here in the West. 

It is intended to scare off critics of the élite and legitimises punishment for those ‘consorting’ with the enemy. In Europe, Russia is the principal hate-object; in the US anti-semitism stands in its stead, with Russian, China and Iran threaded on the same yarn as sharing a common malignity along an axis of evil.

The bottom line to this approach is one that tends to massive over-investment in a single authorised narrative, and when it falls apart (as now), there is 'no exit'.  Doubling down is the only option (even when that course of action is seen to be irrational).

Unfortunately this can become the path to all-too-predictable disaster.  It starts slowly -- encouraging Ukraine to ask for troops; the sending of mlitary ‘trainers’; then a small detachment of uniform troops … etc. Then quickly, as the rulers find their base assumptions were wrong.

Putin is not bluffing … When their troops come home in coffins, at that point, will they back off, or will the fear of seeming weak prompt them to do stupid things?

 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Slovakia
  • Ukraine
  • Robert Fico
  • European Union
Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke

Director of Conflicts Forum; Former Senior British Diplomat; Author.

Most Read

All
The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

  • Opinion
  • 11 Jun 2025
At the time of Vanunu’s whistleblowing, Western governments and intelligence agencies had been aware of "Israel’s" development of nuclear weapons for almost three decades. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)

Hidden history: How 'Israel' acquired nukes

  • Opinion
  • 13 Jun 2025
Absent a full-scale American war on the Islamic Republic, Netanyahu has set up his regime and himself for a historic humiliation. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The clock is ticking down to 'Israel’s' capitulation

  • Opinion
  • 18 Jun 2025
Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

  • Opinion
  • 12 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

Already, "Israel" has the White House committed to support an Israeli military operation against Hezbollah. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Does 'Israel' want war?

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS