Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a “stable, but very serious” condition, according to the director of the hospital at which he is being treated after being shot several times.
“The patient had multiple gunshot wounds,” said Miriam Lapuniková at a press conference Thursday morning outside her Banská Bystrica hospital. “His condition is stable, but very serious.” She added that Fico had been in surgery for five hours.
Earlier, Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš Taraba told the BBC that Fico’s surgery “went well,” adding: “I guess in the end he will survive … he’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”
Fico was fighting for his life after being shot multiple times following a government meeting in the town of Handlová in central Slovakia on Wednesday, but regained consciousness after an hours-long surgery, according to local media. Doctors reportedly removed part of Fico’s small intestine due to heavy bleeding into his abdominal cavity.
The Office of the Government announced that Slovakia’s Security Council would convene for an extraordinary meeting Thursday. The Slovak Cabinet will also meet.
Before Taraba’s update, Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák told the press outside the Banská Bystrica hospital, where Fico was being treated, that the prime minister was “fighting for his life.” He added: “We are hoping that he is strong enough to make it.”
The populist prime minister won a general election last September and has faced widespread criticism for polarizing politics in the Central European nation, including pro-Russian rhetoric and a push to extend state control over the media.
Last month, Fico ally Peter Pellegrini won a runoff election for the Slovak presidency, giving Fico’s ruling coalition total control over the executive and legislative branches of government.
The alleged shooter was identified locally as a 71-year-old poet. Media published a leaked video of the suspect in which he reportedly said: “I don’t agree with the politics of this government,” citing crackdowns on media and the judiciary.
Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok said the government believed the attempted assassination “was a politically motivated act.”
On Wednesday, Kaliňák, the defense minister, said: “What’s been going on these past weeks and months is incomprehensible, and it’s our job to stop it.” That’s being read as a potential indication of a further crackdown on the journalists and members of the public who have been protesting Fico’s reforms in the past few months.
Well-wishes for Fico poured in from world leaders who expressed their shock at the shooting.
U.S. President Joe Biden said his embassy “is in close touch with the government of Slovakia and ready to assist.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the “vile attack,” adding that “such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good.”
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