Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico was in a critical condition in hospital on Wednesday night after being shot several times in an attempted assassination that shocked the central European country and drew international condemnation.
Mr Fico is currently not in a life threatening situation after being operated on, the country’s deputy prime minister told the BBC on Wednesday.
“I was very shocked ... fortunately as far as I know the operation went well – and I guess in the end he will survive ... he’s not in a life threatening situation at this moment,” Tomas Taraba said.
“One bullet went thought the stomach and the second one hit the joint – immediately he was transported to the hospital and then to the operation,” Mr Taraba added.
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Mr Fico (59), a populist politician who leads the nationalist Smer party, was rushed to hospital after sustaining serious gunshot injuries in the attack on Wednesday afternoon.
The shooting took place in Handlova, a town about two hours’ drive from the capital Bratislava. Mr Fico had been attending a government meeting held in the former mining region, which is viewed as a stronghold for his ruling party.
The prime minister was shot as he approached supporters and other members of the public who were standing at a barrier, according to footage of the incident captured by regional broadcaster RTV Prievidza.
Video of the aftermath of the shooting showed several bodyguards bundling Mr Fico into a car. He was taken to a local medical facility before being airlifted to another hospital in the city of Banska Bystrica, where his condition was described as “life-threatening”.
One Slovakian source said Mr Fico’s condition remained “extremely serious” on Wednesday evening, as medics spent several hours operating on him.
The suspected gunman, who local media reported was a Slovak man aged 71, was disarmed at the scene and arrested. Members of the Slovakian government said the shooting was believed to be a “politically-motivated” attack.
Mr Fico previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 until 2018, when he resigned amid controversy. He returned to power late last year after his party won parliamentary elections and formed a governing coalition. A polarising figure, Mr Fico has taken a Kremlin-friendly position on the Russian war in Ukraine, advocating for military aid to Kyiv to be halted.
Zuzana Caputova, the outgoing president of Slovakia, used a press conference to call for an end to the hate-filled rhetoric that has been a feature of the country’s politics in recent times. Tomas Taraba, one of Slovakia’s deputy prime ministers, hit out at the “hateful” political opposition, who he said had “bloody hands” after the attack.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Miroslav Wlachovsky, a former minister for foreign affairs in Slovakia, criticised attempts to politicise the shooting as a “step in the wrong direction,” at a time when the country needed to unite.
European leaders roundly condemned the shooting, with Taoiseach Simon Harris stating the attempt to kill the Slovakian politician was a “shocking and vile attack on democracy”.
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