Slovakia’s anti-globalist prime minister Robert Fico was shot and seriously injured in an assassination attempt after a government meeting in the town of Hándlova, Czech media report.
Late Wednesday night, Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš Taraba told BBC News Hour that the prime minister was no longer in a life-threatening situation and that he believed Prime Minister Robert Fico “will survive.”
At 20:00 CET Wednesday, Fico was still undergoing surgery in a Slovakian hospital, according to defense minister Robert Kaliňák:
“The operation has been going on for more than 3.5 hours, any more detailed health information will only be provided afterwards. It’s really a very complicated medical condition,” Kaliňák told media. “We are all praying that this will lead to good news, but so far we have no such news and therefore we are putting our trust in the hands of the treating medical staff.”
At 16:30 CET on Wednesday, Fico’s official Facebook account stated that
He was shot multiple times and is currently in critical condition. At this moment, he is being airlifted by helicopter to Banska Bystrica, as going to Bratislava would take too long given the necessity of immediate intervention. The next few hours will be decisive.
This information was also confirmed by government sources to the iRozhlas news outlet. Fico was reportedly awake and communicating when he arrived at the hospital after being shot in the stomach and the left hand, the news outlet said.
Further medical information has been embargoed, Markíza TV reports, with mobile phones taken from medical staff at the hospital in Banská Bystrica where Fico is under treatment.
A witness told Reuters he heard several shots and saw security officers pushing someone into a vehicle. The shooter, identified as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula by Slovak TVNoviny.sk, has been detained.
President Zuzana Čaputová in a statement condemned the attack and wished for a full recovery for the prime minister. Andrej Kiska, Slovakia’s former president, called the attack on Robert Fico “a heinous act, which is an attack on the very foundations of the country and its democracy. … The prime minister’s health is most important now. I sincerely wish him a speedy recovery,” he wrote on Facebook.
“The attack on Robert Fico is unequivocally reprehensible, no matter what the motivation was. It should be a warning to us about how far the deepening of animosity and aggression in society can lead,” said Czech President Petr Pavel. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán said on X he was “deeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend.”
Other European and world leaders also condemned the attack, including France’s President Macron, U.S. President Joe Biden, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Comments have also come in from Russian President Putin, who said the attack had absolutely no justification, and Pope Francis, who said the attack is evidence of worsening relations in politics.
This is a developing story.
