A man has been charged with the attempted murder of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico, who is in a stable condition in hospital but is “not out of the woods yet” according to officials.
Mr Fico was left fighting for his life in hospital after he was shot several times in the stomach in what the government has decribed as an assassination attempt. Mr Fico, 59, was airlifted to hospital after five shots were fired by a gunman outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova where the leader was meeting with supporters.
Mr Fico was still critical on Thursday after undergoing five hours of surgery with doctors working around the clock to save his life. But Slovakian president-elect Peter Pellegrini said he could speak a little.
”He is able to speak but only a few sentences and then he is really tired because he is on some medication," Mr Pellegrini said. He added that if the bullets struck just a few millimetres either side, Mr Fico would have been killed.
Earlier, the deputy prime minister, Robert Kalinak, said it was too early to say whether Mr Fico would recover from the attack due to “the extent of the injuries caused by four gunshot wounds”.
Interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok, speaking at the same news conference, said the suspected shooter had acted alone and had previously taken part in anti-government protests.
“This is a lone wolf who had radicalised himself in the latest period after the presidential election [in April],” Mr Sutaj Estok said.
The suspect listed government policies on Ukraine and its plans to reform the country’s public broadcaster and dismantle the special prosecutor’s office that deals with high-level corruption as reasons for the attack, Mr Sutaj Estok said.
Police gave no details about their investigation at an afternoon news conference but said they had boosted security at Slovakia‘s parliament and also around media offices and schools.
Local media has named the alleged suspect as Juraj Cintula, 71, from the town of Levice. He is believed to be a former security guard and poet. The suspect has not been formally identified by authorities.
Miriam Lapunikova, director of the FD Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica where Mr Fico is being treated, said two surgery teams had been needed to treat multiple gunshot wounds.
"At this point his condition is stabilised but is truly very serious. He will be in the intensive care unit," she told reporters.
Legislators have appealed for unity in the wake of the shooting, saying it has exposed an increasingly polarised political climate both in Slovakia and across Europe in the run up to European parliamentary elections next month.
Slovakia’s opposition leader Michal Simecka called for an end to the “spiral of attacks and blame” He continued: “The assassination of the prime minister is an attack on democracy. Most of all, we now need to end the spiral of attacks and blame. We must all contribute to this in our own way, both as politicians and as citizens.”
Mr Pellegrini also called for calm and urged political parties to scale back their campaigns for the country’s upcoming European elections.
He said: “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.”
Meanwhile, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk also revealed he had received a death threat after Mr Fico’s attempted assassination.
“There was a lot of it yesterday,” Mr Tusk said in a post on Twitter/X, illustrated with a screenshot of a comment.
It read: “Today, Slovaks gave us an example of what should be done with Donald Tusk” if he decided not to carry out investment in a big airport in central Poland.
