‘Lone wolf’ shooter charged as Fico still in serious condition
A “LONE wolf” has been charged over the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico who yesterday remained seriously ill in hospital, the Slovak interior minister said.
The attempted assassination has shocked the small central European nation, with leaders blaming the attack in part on extreme political polarisation that has divided the country.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told a press conference that the man charged did not belong to any political groups.
Mr Fico was in a serious but stable condition yesterday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in the attempt on his life on Wednesday.
The interior minister said that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Mr Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town.
However, he said yesterday that the suspect charged was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political groups”.
The minister did not specify what the motivation was.
Mr Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and his return to power last year on a pro-russian, anti-american message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country’s pro-western course.
The attempt on Mr Fico’s life came at a time of high division in Slovakia, as thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital Bratislava and around the country to protest his policies.
It also comes just ahead of June elections for the European Parliament.
Slovakia’s outgoing president and next president, who are political rivals, appeared together in an appeal for Slovaks to overcome their increasingly tense political differences for the good of the country.
Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, an opponent of Mr Fico, said that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm, saying the attack was a reflection of an increasingly polarised society.
“Let us step out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations,” Ms Caputova said at a news conference in Bratislava.
“What happened yesterday was an individual act.
“But the tense atmosphere of hatred was our collective work.”
President-elect Peter Pellegrini called on political parties to suspend or scale back their campaigns for European elections, which will be held over June 6-9, to prevent “stand-offs and mutual accusations between politicians”.
“If there is anything that the people of Slovakia urgently need today, it is at least basic agreement and unity among the Slovak political representation.
And if not consensus, then please, at least civilised ways of discussing among each other,” Mr Pelligrini said.
Mr Fico’s government, elected last September, has caused controversy by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine, and has plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-corruption prosecutor and to take control of public media.
His critics worry that he will lead Slovakia – a nation of 5.4 million that is a Nato member – down a more autocratic path.
Zuzana Eliasova, a resident of Bratislava, said the attack on Mr Fico was a “shock” to the nation and an attack on democracy, at a time when political tensions were already running high.
“I believe that a lot of people or even the whole society will look into their conscience, because the polarisation here has been huge among all different parts of society,” she said.
Doctors performed a five-hour operation on Mr Fico, who was initially reported to be in life-threatening condition, according to the director of the FD Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova.
He is being treated in an intensive care unit.
Five shots were fired outside a cultural centre in the town of Handlova, nearly 85 miles north east of the capital, government officials said.
Slovak police have provided no information on the identity of the gunman but unconfirmed media reports suggested he was a 71-year-old retiree who was known as an amateur poet, and may have previously worked as a security guard at a mall in the country’s south west.
Mr Fico returned to power in Slovakia last year, having previously served twice as prime minister.
He and his Smer party have most often been described as left-populist, though he has also been compared to politicians on the right such as the nationalist prime minister of neighbouring Hungary, Viktor Orban.
Speqaking to the BBC, Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba said of Mr Fico: “I guess in the end he will survive. He’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”
Speaking outside the hospital where the prime minister was being treated, Defence Minister Robert Kalina told reporters Mr Fico had been hit in the abdomen and that doctors had fought to save his life for several hours.
Let us step out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations