These so-called lone assassins seem to appear more and more frequently in recent years. Written by Alexandra Knopf.
The news that many feared and which deeply shook all people of good sense: a successful assassination attempt against the 45th President of the United States was just a few millimeters away. There is no doubt that Donald Trump was being closely watched from up there, as it was only due to a lucky move that the bullet only grazed his ear - it could have even penetrated his skull, inflicting a fatal wound.
The incident is similar to the assassination attempt against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico a few months ago, where it is also a miracle that the target survived the attack.
Of course, there are those who say that violence has always been present in American politics - assassinations against presidents and presidential candidates have been planned seventeen times so far, eight of which were carried out, and four times the killer was successful. And there will be those who complain that this is an isolated case, a lone assassin whose motivations are unknown, otherwise the former president can blame himself for the trouble with his behavior and expressions.
However, these so-called lone assassins seem to be appearing more and more frequently in recent years.
Just think of the majority of terrorist attacks in Europe, which at first glance were typically also carried out by lone perpetrators, but a few days later it was usually revealed that they were connected to some terrorist organization and were often watched by the police.
The murder attempt in Pennsylvania and Nyitrabánya have in common that there is clearly a political motive in the background of both, and moreover, politicians are at the center of the attacks who - whether or not - represent a position that goes against the international liberal mainstream.
We don't have to go far in time for assassinations against other politicians, since a few days before the European Parliament elections on June 9, we could read news that
a right-wing politician and municipal representative was stabbed in Germany because of his political views.
And if that wasn't enough, we can even think of Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who has been living with his wife under twenty-four-hour police protection for two decades.
So the situation is more than acute - and unfortunately not only in the United States. The election super year brought us not only the campaign taking place in the usual heightened atmosphere, but also a dramatic period in which the USA, no exaggeration, is only a few millimeters away from civil war.
And who is responsible for that? Definitely the shapers of the political atmosphere in the United States.
Years of unbridled incitement against the former Republican president, the endlessly aggressive campaign of the Democratic Party, and the left-liberal press are also deeply involved in how things could have gotten to this point.
Let's not go without saying that since it became clear that Donald Trump will be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party, articles have appeared in the liberal media in which he is compared to Adolf Hitler or even the devil,
and Democratic Party politicians regularly emphasize that everyone should remember: whoever votes for Trump is voting against democracy. The question is, of course, how much it helps the functioning of democracies if leaders are hunted down - across the sea and beyond.
According to Politico, it cannot be called right-wing by itself
President Joe Biden also said on a fundraising conference call a few weeks ago that "it's time to put Trump in a bullseye".
A few days ago, we would have classified this statement as a harmless sentence, but today it cannot be called so, because on July 13, a turning point occurred in both politics and political communication. From now on, every speaker, every politician and opinion leader must pay extra attention to what they write and what sentences leave their mouths.
We live in a time when every word spoken matters.
And those who sway themselves in the belief that all these problems do not reach us and can only rear their heads in the United States, which is drifting to the brink of civil war, should remember what happened in Slovakia in May.
It is no coincidence that Robert Fico also spoke, drawing parallels between Donald Trump and the assassination attempt against him, emphasizing that the two assassination attempts seemed to have followed the same scenario.
“Donald Trump has been tried to be stopped by his political opponents, and when that fails, they get the public so upset that some unfortunate guy picks up a gun. And now it will be about the need for reconciliation and forgiveness," he said.
The Slovak prime minister also defended his Hungarian counterpart: he said that what was done to Viktor Orbán was unacceptable, because "as a sovereign politician, he decided to visit Ukraine, Russia and China to promote peace initiatives".
Unfortunately, the concerns of sovereignist politicians are not unfounded: stigmatization, impossibility, boycotts, legal battles, attempts at liquidation - those who cast their votes in favor of sovereign politics and the representation of peace must mentally prepare for these.
Many people on the Hungarian right have been emphasizing for a long time: from now on, it is in the elementary interest not only of Hungary, but of the entire West, to have a leader of the free world who represents not division but unity, not abnormality but normality, after the presidential elections in November.
If there is no change, an era of violence and unrest will forever follow instead of order.
Cover image: Former US President Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate(s), is surrounded by agents of the Secret Service who protect him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Source: MTI/AP/Gene J. Puskar
