- Written by Maru Cursino and Sarah Rainsford, Bratislava
- bbc news
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Roberto Fico was shot several times, but his injuries are no longer life-threatening, the deputy prime minister announced.
Tomás Taraba told the BBC that Mr Fico’s surgery had gone “successfully” and that “he will survive in the end”.
Earlier, Mr Fico, 59, was said to be “fighting for his life” after being seriously injured in the attack in the small town of Handlova.
The suspect was taken into custody at the scene of the shooting.
Interior Minister Matusz Stagi Estka called it a politically motivated assassination attempt.
Fico’s comments calling for military aid to Ukraine and an end to sanctions against Russia have caused divisive opinions at home and caused controversy in the EU.
But condemnation of the shooting has come from far and wide, calling it an attack on democracy.
Gunman fires at close range
The gunman was among a small crowd of Fico supporters gathered outside the cultural center in Handlova, where the prime minister was holding a meeting.
The shooting completely surprised Mr. Fico’s guards. Footage shows the shot dead prime minister being carried away by several police officers and then placed in a car and driven away from the scene.
The gunman fired five shots at close range, hitting Fico in the abdomen and arm.
After the shooting, he was rushed to hospital and spent several hours in surgery “fighting for his life,” Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said.
There has been no official update on the prime minister’s condition since then, but his second in command later told the BBC’s NewsHour program that Mr Fico was “absent”. [a] At this point, the situation is life-threatening. ”
“As far as I know, the operation went well. I think he will survive in the end,” Taraba said.
Taraba added that the prime minister was shot “at close range”, with “one bullet penetrating his stomach and the second hitting his joints”.
Police have not yet identified a suspect. Unconfirmed local media reports said he was a 71-year-old writer and political activist.
A video widely circulated in Slovak media purports to feature the suspect.
In the video, the man says he disagrees with the government’s policies and attitude towards state media. The BBC does not know whether the person in the video is the perpetrator, who was detained at the scene, or the circumstances in which it was filmed.
The shooting occurred on the day parliament began debating the government’s proposal to abolish Slovakia’s public broadcaster RTVS.
In recent weeks, thousands of Slovaks have protested against proposed reforms to the public broadcaster. However, a planned opposition-led demonstration was called off on Wednesday after news of the shootings emerged.
image source, Getty Images
In an interview with the BBC, Deputy Prime Minister Taraba accused Slovakia’s opposition of “false reporting” of the shooting incident.
“Our prime minister has said several times in the past that he is concerned that something like this could happen,” Taraba said in a separate interview with the BBC’s World Tonight programme.
He said Fico had warned that “the way the government has been attacked with false narratives could lead to an overheated reaction among the people and lead to something like this.”
Parliament was in session at the time of the attack, and Slovak media reported that Fico’s party colleagues had verbally abused opposition members and accused them of inciting the attack.
“Many of you are the ones who were sowing the seeds of this hatred,” Interior Minister Estoque told a news conference, accusing the media of contributing to the environment that led to the shooting of the 59-year-old.
“I believe in this assassination,” Estoque added. [attempt] It was politically motivated. ”
Following news of the attack, outgoing Slovak President Zuzana Caputova said: “Something so serious has happened that we cannot even recognize it yet.”
“The hateful rhetoric we see in society leads to hateful acts,” she added.
Fico returned to power in Slovakia after last September’s election as leader of a populist-nationalist coalition.
His first months as Prime Minister were highly controversial both in Slovakia and in the EU. He suspended military aid to Ukraine in January and last month pushed ahead with plans to abolish RTVS.
