Assassination attempt on Robert Fico is part of a growing tide of violence and threats towards democratically elected politicians – Christine Jardine

Christine Jardine never dreamed that become an MP would require her to have security at home and armed police protecting her workplace

When Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova said that “the shooting of the prime minister is foremost an attack on a human being, but… also an attack on democracy", we should all have taken her words to heart. Because given Robert Fico is the leader of an EU country and Nato member state, his attempted assassination adds volume to the warning bells for democracy being rung across the Western world.

This is a man, head of government in a state which re-emerged from beneath the heel of Soviet dictatorship within living memory, whose fluctuating position on Ukraine made his relationship with Putin difficult. Geographically his country sits squarely on what was once the Iron Curtain, amid renewed tension between Russia and Nato. Ukraine is on its eastern border. Austria the western.

But while we might be aware of geopolitical warnings – Putin making friends with China, threats of cyber attacks from hostile foreign countries, the Middle East on the brink of war – we shouldn’t ignore the more direct domestic issue either.

Security personnel carry Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico towards a vehicle after he was shot on Wednesday (Picture: RTVS/AFP via Getty Images)

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When President Caputova spoke of the human aspect, she was reflecting much of her own experience, and of myself and my colleagues at Westminster. In eight years, two MPs have been murdered. Last week the Speaker had to issue a reminder about personal safety and security after a vote in the Commons provoked another wave of abuse and threats on social media.

I never dreamed that being elected would mean security in my home, armed police protecting me at my workplace and facing a constant stream of abuse on Twitter/X from people I neither know nor represent. But violent reaction has somehow become the default response for so many to something they don’t like. Complete intolerance of any divergence from their viewpoint.

No politician can please 100 per cent of people, 100 per cent of the time. But it is fine to disagree. That’s democracy. Or at least it used to be. Recent research showed that 93 per cent of female MPs have suffered online abuse and worse.

Hundreds of abusive posts directed at MSPs passed to police

Our increasingly identity and nationalist-driven agenda is divisive and exaggerates the simplistic ‘us and them’ narrative. It is a dangerous trend which we have seen escalate into violent attacks on individuals and institutions. Increasingly we are being warned that these incidents are seldom isolated and often manipulated.

The idea that there are hostile international actors working to undermine public faith in democracy, to radicalise the general population, can no longer be dismissed as some paranoia-fuelled plot from a political thriller. We could, of course, blame ourselves. Say that it’s the system. It doesn’t work for the 21st century, We need to pull it all down and start again.

I don’t think so. Yes, there are issues which need addressed, but one of the great strengths of British democracy is that it has changed, developed and become more representative almost with every visit to the ballot box. Simply look at the rich diversity in parliament today, compared to when Diane Abbott became our first black female MP in 1987.

Everywhere it seems that progress is under attack, and not from those with our best interests at heart. It’s a threat to democracy but also to each of us as humans.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West