The Slovak Minister said that the Prime Minister is in critical condition and that his life is in danger.
Banská Bystrica:
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico fought for his life on an operating table on Wednesday after being shot several times in what the government called a “political attack”.
Surgeons spent hours fighting to save the 59-year-old populist leader after the attack that was condemned around the world.
“The prime minister is in critical condition and his life is in danger and he is still in the operating room,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters at a hospital in the central town of Banska Bystrica.
Footage of events shortly after the shooting showed security officers grabbing the injured Fico from the ground and pushing him into a black car that was speeding away. Other officers handcuffed a man on the sidewalk nearby.
Police detained a suspect at the scene of the attack in Handlova, President Zuzana Caputova told journalists. “I am shocked, we are all shocked by the terrible, heinous attack,” she added.
Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak gave no information about the suspect but said: “What happened is a political attack. It is absolutely clear and we have to react to it,” Kalinak said.
The emotional minister told reporters he hoped that in the coming days authorities “will (find out) what happened. Now I’m just focusing on Robert’s situation, on his health.”
Fico was shot multiple times, said a post on his official Facebook page.
“Today, after the government meeting in Handlova, there was an assassination attempt” on Fico, the government said.
– Unprecedented attack –
Public television RTVS showed a stretcher taken from a helicopter by doctors and taken to the hospital in Banska Bystrica surrounded by security guards. A cover was over the stretcher.
Fico, whose Smer-SD party won the general election last September, is a four-time prime minister and a veteran politician accused of influencing his country’s foreign policy in favor of the Kremlin.
Media reported the alleged shooter was a 71-year-old writer, but police did not name any suspects.
“I have absolutely no idea what the father was thinking, what he was planning, why this happened,” the alleged suspect’s son told the Slovak news website aktuality.sk.
Analyst Grigorij Meseznikov told AFP that “there have been no (previous) attacks on any minister or prime minister in Slovakia.”
“I only remember the case of former Economy Minister Jan Ducky, who was shot dead in 1999,” he added. “But he was no longer politically active when he was killed.”
– Attack condemned –
Slovakia’s elected president and Fico ally Peter Pellegrini said he learned of the shooting “with horror.”
“An assassination attempt on one of the highest constitutional officials is an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy,” he added on X, formerly Twitter.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen denounced the “vile attack”, while NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he was “shocked and horrified”.
US President Joe Biden said he and the first lady “are praying for a speedy recovery and our thoughts are with her family and the people of Slovakia.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the “terrible” shooting, while Russian President Vladimir Putin called the shooting a “heinous crime.”
“I know that Robert Fico is a brave and strong-minded man. I sincerely hope that these qualities will help him withstand this difficult situation,” Putin said.
– observations from Ukraine –
In addition to his current term as prime minister, Fico headed the government in 2006-10 and 2012-18. He is married to lawyer Svetlana Ficova, with whom he has a son, Michal, although Slovak media reported that the couple had separated.
Fico was forced to resign in 2018 after the murder of an investigative journalist exposed high-level corruption and stirred anti-government sentiment.
But he came back again.
Since returning to office last October, Fico has made a series of comments that have soured ties between Slovakia and neighboring Ukraine.
He questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty and called for a compromise with Russia, which invaded it in 2022.
After being elected, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine. He promised during the election campaign not to supply Kiev with “a single bullet.”
He has also sparked mass protests with controversial changes, including a media law that critics say will undermine the impartiality of public television and radio.
At a press conference after the shooting, deputy Lubos Blaha, from Fico’s party, attacked the prime minister’s critics.
“You, the liberal media and progressive politicians are to blame. Robert Fico is fighting for his life because of his hate,” Blaha said.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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