Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former Russian president and regular forecaster of a third World War, had no hesitation in comparing the would-be assassin of Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia to the young man who ignited World War I. Europe, he suggested, was once more on the brink.
It was on many levels a wild association to make.
The Europe of empires that unraveled between 1914 and 1918 is long gone, as is the Europe that replaced it and produced Auschwitz.
In their place the painstakingly constructed European Union of 27 members, including Slovakia, has been put in place with the overriding goal of making war impossible on a long-ravaged continent.
Yet, with elections to the European Parliament just three weeks way, ominous indications of brewing violence go well beyond the shooting of Mr. Fico, whose condition remains serious.
Persons:
Dmitri A, Medvedev, Robert Fico, Fico, Mr, Princip, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Churchill
Organizations:
Bosnian Serb, of
Locations:
Russian, Slovakia, Europe, Russia, Bosnian, Sarajevo