Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt that shaken the tiny nation and had an impact on Europe days before Western elections, according to a hospital official who said the populist president was in critical but stable condition on Thursday.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok stated on Wednesday that an initial research revealed” distinct political inspiration” behind the assault on Fico while he was attending a government appointment in a former coal mining town.
The secretary did not give a reason for the explanation. Fico has long been a controversial figure in Slovakia and elsewhere, and his reign as leader last year with a pro-Russian and pro-American message sparked even greater concern among other EU members that he would leave their pro-West mentality.
On Wednesday, Fico attempted to kill himself in a high-profile incident in Slovakia, as thousands of protesters have regularly gathered in the cash and throughout the nation to rally his plans. Additionally, it comes just before the European Parliament’s votes in June.
The state of Fico has now stopped providing weapons to Ukraine and has programs to amend the penal code to remove a special anti-graft prosecutor and take control of the common media. His detractors worry that he will set Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million that is a member of NATO, on a more authoritarian course.
The attack on Fico was a” shock” to the country and an attack on democracy, according to Zuzana Eliasova, a resident of Bratislava’s capital.
” I think a lot of people or even the entire world may look into their consciences because there has been such a polarization in all of world,” she said.
Doctors performed a five- hours function on Fico, who was first reported to be in life- menacing condition, according to director of the F. D. Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova. He is receiving care in an intensive care facility.
Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers ( 85 miles ) northeast of the capital, government officials said.
A government official stated that a government meeting would be held on Thursday in Bratislava, the capital city, to discuss the situation, adding that a government meeting would follow.
Fico, who previously served twice as prime minister, re-elected Slovakia last year. He and his Smer party have most frequently been compared to left-leaning politicians like Viktor Orbán, the nationalist prime minister of neighboring Hungary, but they have also been compared to him.
Fico’s victory sparked concern among his critics that he and his party, which had long been tarnished by scandal, would take Slovakia away from the mainstream of Western culture. He vowed to fight against immigration and non-governmental organizations, and he also vowed to fight against LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite the controversy surrounding Fico’s leadership, condemnation of the attack came from both his allies and adversaries. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, sent a message to Zuzana Caputova, the president of Slovakia, on Wednesday, expressing his support and wishing the prime minister a speedy and full recovery.
” This atrocious crime cannot be justified”, Putin said in the message released by the Kremlin. ” I know Robert Fico as a strong-willed and courageous individual. I sincerely hope that these individual traits will enable him to overcome this difficult circumstance.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, also denounced the violence directed at the head of a neighboring nation.
” Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere”, he said.
