July 7-- Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico July 5made his first public appearance since he was shot several times on May 15 in an assassination attempt. At a ceremony marking Saints Cyril and Methodius Day, a public holiday in Slovakia, he criticized the libertarian ideologies that were “spreading like cancer…. I don’t want Slovakia to be among the countries that make a caricature of Western civilization,” as quoted by Reuters.

Fico had been targeted for his opposition to the escalation of a war between Russia and NATO in neighboring Ukraine, which also borders Hungary. Speaking shortly after the diplomatic mission by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow had caught the “permanent warfare” gang off guard, Fico reiterated his own call for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. He added that, if his health had allowed it, he would have joined Orbán on his visit to Moscow. Against the howling of eaving warhawks over  Orbán the previous 24 hours, Fico said: “There are not enough, I repeat, not enough peace talks, peace initiatives.”

The Kyiv Independent also covered Fico’s re-entry into public life, stressing that Fico criticized what he referred to as liberal and progressive political ideologies, noting that he expressed praise for Orbán.

Otherwise, on July 4, Slovakia’s Prosecutor-General Maroš Žilinka announced that investigators in the assassination case have found new evidence against Juraj Cintula, the admitted shooter, which justify the charge of an act of “terror.” Žilinka did not make public the new evidence at that time