Shooting leaves country on edge
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, remained in grave condition after he was shot several times in what officials describe as a politically motivated assassination attempt.
The populist leader was attacked on Wednesday (local time) as he greeted citizens and then underwent extensive surgery for “life-threatening” injuries. He remained in serious but stable condition, officials said.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said the suspect – earlier named as Juraj Cintula, 71 – had been charged with murder and acted alone, motivated by politics.
“This is a lone wolf who had radicalised himself in the latest period after the presidential election,” he said.
The exact nature of Fico’s wounds was still not clear. Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak said the prime minister had suffered multiple traumas and his ability to communicate was limited.
The brutal attack has shaken Slovakia and spotlighted deep political divisions in the country. Fico is a pivotal – and highly polarising – figure in Slovakian politics who is on his fourth stint as prime minister.
Though his party has roots on the left, he has in recent years embraced positions more associated with the far right, adopting nationalist, anti-immigrant politics and conservative social views.
In 2018, he was forced out after public outrage over the killing of a journalist who was investigating ties between his associates and the Italian mafia. He returned to power for the fourth time last fall, winning a hard-fought race on a pro-Russian and anti-Nato platform.
In the months since, he has drawn ire in some quarters for refusing to send weapons to Ukraine and trying to push forward a plan to abolish the state broadcaster and replace it with a new channel.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, his allies took aim at his critics, including opposition figures and journalists, blaming them for the attack.
At a news briefing at the parliament not long after the attack, Lubos Blaha, deputy chairman of Fico’s party, Smer, turned to opposition deputies and said: “This is your work.”
Andrej Danko, a coalition partner, shouted at reporters: “Are you happy?”
Outgoing president Zuzana Caputova and president-elect Peter Pellegrini said they were inviting the leaders of all parliamentary parties to the presidential palace to urge calm. “We politicians must have control over our emotions,” Caputova said.
Both the leaders cast the shooting as an attack on democratic norms. “An assassination attempt on the Slovak prime minister is an assassination attempt on democracy,” Pellegrini said.
The attack on Fico happened on Wednesday in Handlova, about two hours east of the Slovak capital, Bratislava. Fico attended a meeting, then shook hands with people gathered outside.
Video from the scene shows him reaching across a metal barrier as a man starts shooting. Five shots were fired before the assailant was tackled to the ground.
Media photographs show security personnel then bundling an injured Fico into a black sedan. From there, he was transported to a hospital.
Experts raised questions about the security breaches that may have led to the shooting, as well as the response of officials at the scene. – Washington Post