Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said the life of Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived the assassination attempt, was not in danger. "I think he will survive in the end, there is no danger to his life at the moment," he was quoted as saying by a number of media outlets.
He made this statement after the successful operation that lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes at the hospital in the city of Banska Bystrica, TV channel TA3 reported, citing sources. However, the prime minister has been placed in an artificial coma, in which he will remain for 24 hours. He was initially reported to have lost a lot of blood in the abdominal area, but sources later clarified that the major arteries were not damaged and the blood loss was not as critical as previously thought. TAZ added that Fico's condition had stabilized and he was communicating with doctors. According to the television, this fact gives hope that the seriously injured Fizo will recover after the attempt. The best doctors in Slovakia are involved in the Prime Minister's treatment.
The attempt
The attempt to kill the prime minister took place in front of the House of Culture in the mining town of Handlova, which is located 150 km northeast of the capital Bratislava. The news of the attempt was also confirmed at the meeting of the local parliament. According to JOJ TV, a man from the crowd started shooting at the prime minister when he came out to greet the residents of Handlova after a government meeting with the local government. According to witnesses who were at the scene of the incident, Fico approached the people who greeted him, then several shots were fired. The prime minister was hit in the stomach, pelvis and arm, after which he fell to the ground. The alleged attacker was detained by the police.
As TA3 notes, the assassination attempt on Fico is the first assassination attempt on a sitting prime minister in Europe in 38 years. On February 28, 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated on Stockholm's main street.
"What happened is a political attack. It's absolutely clear and we have to react to it," Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters during a press conference at the hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, where Fico was transported after the attack.
The attempt was condemned by the entire political spectrum in Slovakia, the European Union, the United States and Russia. Bulgaria also condemned the attack on Fico. "We categorically condemn the attack against Robert Fico! We wish him a speedy recovery, and strength and courage to his family," the Council of Ministers said.
The assassin
The attempt against Robert Fico may have been carried out by the famous writer Juraj Chintula, local media reported. He was an activist of the liberal party "Progressive Slovakia" and had an officially registered weapon in Slovakia, Aktuality reported. According to Denník, he fired with a short-barreled weapon that he legally possessed. Witnesses said he first shouted at Fico, who then approached him to shake his hand. Shots were fired. It is noted that the suspect worked in a private security service in 2016. Then he himself became the victim of an attack while working in one of the shopping centers. Slovak media identified the shooter with the initials J.C., but there has been no official confirmation that it was Juraj Cintula.
The suspect in the attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is a 71-year-old writer, the interior minister said later on Wednesday after the media identified the man. "I think I can confirm that, yes," Interior Minister Matus Sutai Estok told reporters.
The gray-haired suspect was seen handcuffed on the ground just after Fico was shot several times after a government meeting in Handlova.
The media reports that the suspect is the founder of the literary club DUHA (Rainbow) and is from the town of Levice. He has reportedly written three collections of poetry and is a member of the official Association of Slovak Writers. The association confirmed on Facebook that the man had been a member since 2015, adding that if his identity as the suspected shooter was confirmed, "this despicable person's membership will be immediately revoked."
The suspect's son told Slovakian news site aktuality.sk that he had "absolutely no idea what his father was thinking, what he was planning, why it happened". He said his father is a legally registered gun owner. Asked if he harbored any hatred for Fico, the son said: “I'll tell you this: he didn't vote for him. That's all I can say about it."
Vlasta Kolarova, head of a local library in the man's hometown, told Dennik H: "As a child, he was a rebel, but not aggressive."
Several political statements by the man, whom AFP chose not to name, can be found on social media. "The world is full of violence and guns. People seem to be going crazy," he said in a video posted online eight years ago. In the video, he also spoke about anxiety over immigration, "hate and extremism" and said European governments "have no alternative to this chaos". He also said in the video that he founded "Movement Against Violence" in Levice. The movement, which also has its own Facebook page, describes itself as "an emerging political party whose goal is to prevent the spread of violence in society. To prevent war in Europe and the spread of hatred."
The leader of the liberal Progressive Slovakia (Progresivne Slovensko) party, which is in opposition to the current government, has denied that the man who tried to kill Prime Minister Robert Fico was connected to their movement. "We warn against spreading false information about the bomber. We categorically deny that he was a member of our movement. It has absolutely no connection with our party or members of our party," Mihail Shimechka wrote on the party's Facebook page.
Who is Robert Fico?
Born into a working-class family on September 15, 1964, Fico, a lawyer by profession, began his political career in the Communist Party shortly before the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989 that led to the breakup of the former Czechoslovakia.
From 1994 to 2000 he represented Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and in 1999 he founded his centre-left party Smer-SD after being rejected for a ministerial post by the Democratic Left (DL) , the political heirs of the communists.
In 2006, Smer won a landslide victory that catapulted Fico to the premiership two years after Slovakia joined the EU. In 2009, he took his country into the eurozone, but failed to form a coalition the following year, despite winning the election.
In 2012, after the fall of the center-right coalition due to accusations of corruption, he achieved another victory, and in 2016 he won again. But two years later he had to resign amid mass protests over the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee.
Embattled in allegations of corruption, which he has always denied, Fizzo is a fan of bodybuilding, football and fast cars. He called Slovak journalists "dirty anti-Slovak prostitutes". He is married to lawyer Svetlana Fitsova, with whom he has a son, Michal, although Slovak media reported that the couple had separated.
In 2023, Smer again won the parliamentary elections and then managed to form a governing coalition. Fizo, in turn, stood at the head of the executive.
Since returning to office last October, Fico has made a series of statements that have soured relations between Slovakia and neighboring Ukraine. He, for example, questioned Ukraine's sovereignty and called for a compromise with Russia. Fico has repeatedly opposed sending troops and weapons to Ukraine and has also said he would block Ukraine's membership of NATO, as it would mean the start of World War III.
He admires both Vladimir Putin, saying he would not allow the Russian president to be arrested with an international warrant if he came to Slovakia, and Hungary's illiberal leader Viktor Orbán. /BGNES, AFP
