Slovak PM in 'extraordinarily serious' condition after assassination ...
London: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in an “extraordinarily serious” condition after he was shot multiple times in a suspected assassination attempt which has rocked the central European nation.
The country’s defence minister, Robert Kalinak, said on Wednesday that Fico was still undergoing surgery after more than three-and-a-half hours after suffering “serious trauma” when he was shot five times in the stomach, arm and leg.
Bodyguards take Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in a car from the scene of the shooting.Credit: TASR via AP
The 59-year-old populist, pro-Russian leader was transferred by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Banská Bystrica, rather than the capital Bratislava, because of the need for “acute intervention”.
A man with a gun licence was detained as a suspect, local media reported, with a government spokesman saying preliminary information “clearly” points to a political motivation.
Slovakia, a member of NATO and the European Union, has little history of political violence. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden joined Slovakia’s EU partners in expressing shock and condemnation of the shooting.
Kalinak said Fico’s health was “really serious” and the “situation is bad” while describing the incident as the “saddest moment” in Slovakia’s 31-year history.
Police arrest a man after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured.Credit: TASR via AP
“What happened today is a stigma which will haunt us for many years to come,” he said.
Although little information was initially available about the suspect, some politicians from the prime minister’s coalition were quick to claim the opposition had provoked the attack.
The shooting came on the day parliament began discussing Fico’s government’s proposal to abolish Slovakia’s public broadcaster, and replace it with an institution opponents fear will be far more passive towards him and his allies within the populist-nationalist coalition.
Interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok said in a press conference that online “hate” was behind the attack, urging journalists, the public and politicians to “stop spreading hate”.
Rescue workers take Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica.Credit: TASR via AP
“We can’t respond to hate with hate. That is why I would like to ask you all to stop all this hate on social media, targeted at this or that political party.”
Other politicians linked the shooting with acute political divisions affecting Slovakia.
A Reuters witness heard several shots as Fico exited a building to shake hands with a crowd of people who had been waiting to greet him. A video showed civilians and guards detaining the suspect outside the cultural centre in Handlova with a man, wearing a pale blue shirt, then wrestled to the ground, with his hands tied behind his back.
Slovak news media reported the shooter was a former security guard at a shopping mall, an author of three collections of poetry and a member of the Slovak Society of Writers. Atkuality.sk cited his son as saying his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.
Veteran leaderFico, founder of the populist SMER party, began his fourth term in office last October leading a three-way Eurosceptic coalition. That grouping has been deeply at odds with liberal and pro-EU groups as it calls for tough anti-migrant measures and an end to sanctions against Russia.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured after the away-from-home government meeting in Handlova.Credit: TASR via AP
His return to power sparked mass protests this year that echoed large-scale demonstrations in 2018 over the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old journalist who had been investigating alleged links between SMER and organised crime. Fico stepped down from his previous term amid those protests.
Describing the shooting as a “monstrous” crime, Putin said in a Telegram sent to Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova: “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-minded man. I very much hope that these qualities will help him to survive this difficult situation.”
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Biden offered US help to Slovakia, saying in a statement: “We condemn this horrific act of violence.” He said the US embassy was in “close touch” with the Slovakian government and was “ready to assist”.
Slovakia’s biggest opposition party Progressive Slovakia called off a planned protest against government public broadcaster reforms set for Wednesday evening, local time.
During a three-decade career, Fico has moved between the pro-European mainstream and nationalistic positions opposed to EU and US policies. He has also shown a willingness to change course depending on public opinion or changed political realities.
An admirer of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fico has grown increasingly critical of Western support for Ukraine in its war with invading Russian forces and has expressed opposition to allowing Kyiv to join NATO in the future.
with agencies
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