Slovak prime minister critical after shooting
Pro-Russia leader fighting for his life after assassination attempt
THE prime minister of Slovakia was fighting for his life last night after being shot five times in a politically motivated assassination attempt.
Robert Fico, 59, was targeted while meeting crowds outside a community centre in Handlova, 120 miles from capital Bratislava yesterday.
Mobile phone footage showed him being lifted into a car by his bodyguards and rushed to a local hospital.
He was later taken by helicopter to Banska Bystrica for an emergency operation.
Last night, defence minister Robert Kalinak described his condition as “extraordinarily serious”.
Police and bystanders overpowered the suspected gunman, 71, who is in custody. One witness, who had been waiting to greet Mr Fico, said: “I was just going to shake his hand, when the shots rang out it almost deafened me.”
Thousands of people have repeatedly held protests against his policies.
The country’s outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, a political rival, said in a televised statement: “A physical attack on the prime minister is, first of all, an attack on a person, but it is also an attack on democracy.”
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said an initial investigation shows there was “a clear political motivation” behind the attempt. Mr Fico has caused concern in Western Europe for his pro-Russian stance, saying that “arming Ukraine brings nothing but killing”. The populist left-winger pledged to end Western arms deliveries heading to Ukraine through Slovakia.
His Direction party won the election last September by taking advantage of cost-of-living concerns. It returned him to power five years after he quit following outrage at a journalist’s murder. World leaders reacted with horror at the shooting. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We strongly condemn this act of violence.” UK PM Rishi Sunak said: “Our thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico and his family.” And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “shocked and appalled by the shooting.”
A physical attack on the PM is an attack on democracy
ZUZANA CAPUTOVA OUTGOING PRESIDENT