Slovak PM “stable” but seriously hurt after assassination attempt

After being shot many times on Wednesday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a stable but critical state, according to medical professionals.

After five hours in surgery, the hospital director reported he was now in an intensive care unit.

Prior to this, Mr. Fico, 59, was reportedly fighting for his life following an attack in the little village of Handlova that left him severely injured.

At the scene of the incident, a suspect was taken into custody.

Director Miriam Lapunikova of the F. Mr. Fico was admitted to D. Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, which stated at a press conference that his situation “is truly very serious”.

Earlier, Mr. Fico’s surgery went “well,” according to Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba, who also said, “I guess that at the end he will survive.”

It was an attempt at assassination with political motivation, according to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estoka.

Because of his demands to lift sanctions on Russia and to stop providing military support to Ukraine, Mr. Fico is a contentious figure both at home and in the EU.

However, the shooting has drawn widespread condemnation and been called an assault on democracy.

The prime minister was holding a meeting at a cultural center in Handlova when a small group of Fico supporters assembled outside the building included the gunman.

The security guards for Mr. Fico were totally unprepared for the shooting. After being shot, the prime minister is shown on camera being taken away from the scene by a number of cops, who then load him into a car.

Mr. Fico was struck in the arm and stomach by five close-range rounds fired by the assailant.

According to Ms. Lapunikova, he was flown to the hospital in an air ambulance and underwent five hours of operation by trauma and surgical teams.

Mr. Taraba stated that Mr. Fico was “not in [a] life-threatening situation at this moment” later on Wednesday on the BBC’s Newshour program.

“From very close,” he continued, the prime minister was shot; “one bullet went through the stomach and the second one hit the joint.”

The supposed suspect has not yet been named by the police. Unverified local media sources claim that he was a political activist and writer who was 71 years old.

There is a video circulating on Slovak media that seems to show the suspect.

The man in the video expresses his disagreement with government policies and its treatment of state media. The circumstances surrounding the video’s capture are unknown to the BBC, nor is it known if the individual in it is the offender who was arrested there.

The shooting came on the day parliament began discussing the government’s proposal to abolish Slovakia’s public broadcaster RTVS.

Thousands of Slovaks have protested against the proposed reform of the public broadcaster in recent weeks. However, a planned opposition-led demonstration was called off on Wednesday as news of the shooting emerged.

In his interview with the BBC, Deputy Prime Minister Taraba blamed “false narratives” by opposition parties in Slovakia for the shooting.

“Our prime minister several times mentioned in the past that he was afraid that this would happen,” Mr Taraba said in another interview with the BBC’s World Tonight programme.

Parliament was sitting at the time of the attack and Slovak media reported that a party colleague of Mr Fico’s shouted at opposition MPs, accusing them of stoking the attack.

And Interior Minister Mr Estok accused the media of contributing to the climate that led to the 59-year-old’s shooting, telling a press conference: “Many of you were those who were sowing this hatred.”

Mr Estok added that he believed “this assassination [attempt] was politically motivated”.

Reacting to news of the attack, Slovakia’s outgoing President Zuzana Caputova said something “so serious had happened that we can’t even realise it yet”.

“The hateful rhetoric we witness in society leads to hateful acts,” she added.

Slovakia’s state security council is due to convene and the government will also meet on Thursday morning following the assassination attempt. (BBC)

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