Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico shot and fighting for his life

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Ficowas shot multiple times and seriously injured Wednesday while greeting supporters in an assassination attempt that shocked the small country and reverberated across Europe weeks before the election.

Doctors were still fighting for his life several hours after the 59-year-old pro-Russian leader was shot in the abdomen, Defense Minister Robert Kalina told reporters at the hospital where Fico was being treated.

Fico’s operation is not yet finished, said Kalina, who called his condition “extraordinarily serious.”

Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers northeast of the capital, government officials said. Fico was shot dead while attending a meeting of his government in the town of 16,000 that was once a center of coal mining.

A suspect was in custody and an initial investigation revealed “a clear political motivation” behind the assassination attempt, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said at a press briefing alongside the defense minister.

Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, but his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message has sparked even greater concerns among other European Union members that it could alienate his country from the Western mainstream.

At the start of his fourth term as prime minister, his government cut off arms deliveries to Ukraine and critics fear he will drive Slovakia – a country of 5.4 million people that belongs to the NATO – to abandon its pro-Western path and follow in the footsteps of Hungary. under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Thousands of people gathered repeatedly in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico’s policies.

A message posted on Fico’s Facebook account said he was taken to a hospital in Banská Bystrica, 29 kilometers from Handlova, because it would take too long to get to the capital, Bratislava.

The attack comes as political campaigning intensifies, three weeks before European elections to choose lawmakers for the European Parliament. There are growing fears that populists and nationalists like Fico could gain ground within the 27-member bloc.

But politics, as usual, were put aside as the nation dealt with the shock of the attempt on Fico’s life.

“A physical attack on the prime minister is first and foremost an attack on a person, but it is also an attack on democracy,” outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, Fico’s political rival, said in a televised statement. “Any violence is unacceptable. The hateful speech we witness in society leads to hateful actions. Please, let’s stop this.

President-elect Peter Pellegrini, a Fico ally, called the shooting “an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy.” If we express other political opinions with guns in the squares and not in the polling stations, we endanger everything we have built together over 31 years of Slovak sovereignty.”

The recent elections that brought Fico and his allies to power have highlighted deep social divisions, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, Slovakia’s eastern neighbor.

Gábor Czímer, a political journalist for Slovak media outlet Ujszo.com, said Fico’s return to power had revealed signs that “Slovak society is sharply divided into two camps”: one favorable to Russia and the other which advocates stronger ties with the EU. and the West.

“At the same time, I could not imagine that this could lead to physical violence,” Czímer said.

Estok, Slovakia’s interior minister, told reporters outside the hospital that the country was “on the brink of a civil war” because of political tensions.

“Such hateful comments are being made today on social media, so please let’s stop this immediately,” he said.

US President Joe Biden said he was alarmed by the assassination attempt. “We condemn this horrific act of violence,” he said in a statement.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on the social network X that he was “shocked and appalled” by the attempt on Fico’s life. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it a “despicable attack.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the violence against the head of government of a neighboring country.

“Every effort must be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

The Slovak Parliament has been adjourned until further notice. The main opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, canceled a planned demonstration against a The government’s controversial plan to reform public broadcasting which they said would give the government full control of public radio and television.

Slovak progressive leader Michal Simecka called on all politicians “to refrain from any expressions or actions that could contribute to further increasing tension.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala wished the Prime Minister a speedy recovery. “We cannot tolerate violence, it has no place in society.”

The Czech Republic and Slovakia formed Czechoslovakia until 1992.

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Janicek reported from Prague. Associated Press writer Justin Spike contributed from Budapest, Hungary.