After a meeting of Slovakia’s cabinet, Prime Minister Robert Fico is shot and taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Little by little, more details of the attack become known.
The left-wing nationalist politician Robert Fico, who has been Slovakia’s prime minister for the fourth time since October, was critically injured in an attack on Wednesday. A rescue helicopter took him to a hospital in Banska Bystrica, where he was operated on in the evening.
What exactly happened?
Fico was shot by an assassin at around 2:30 p.m. when he went outside after a cabinet meeting in the cultural center in the small town of Handlova to greet waiting supporters. The local television RTV Prievidza published a video of the crime: You can see a man pushing himself against the fence and shooting at the Prime Minister from close range. According to eyewitness reports, the perpetrator called the politician loudly and then fired five shots at him from close range. The head of government suffered a so-called “polytrauma”, i.e. several serious injuries, the Interior Minister told the media.
After the shooting, eyewitnesses reported the dramatic scenes on site. “Just before I wanted to shake his hand, I heard four shots. Robert fell on the ground,” a man in the square in front of the House of Culture in Handlova told public broadcaster RTVS. A cabinet meeting had previously taken place there. He is in shock. “This is something terrible, these were shots from behind,” he added. A woman told the station about the shooter: “The man stood there from the start. (…) He just waited.”
The attacker was arrested, police said.
How is Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico doing?
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok and Defense Minister Robert Kalinak, who is also deputy head of government, announced directly in the clinic on Wednesday evening that Fico’s condition was life-threatening and “extremely serious.” Early on Thursday morning, Slovak media reported that Fico had regained consciousness after surgery. However, neither the television station TA3 nor the newspaper “Dennik” gave any details about the head of government’s health. Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC that Fico was currently out of danger: “I think he will survive in the end.”
After the attack, Fico was flown by helicopter to the city of Banska Bystrica because the journey to the capital Bratislava would have taken too long given his life-threatening injuries. The shots hit the Prime Minister in the abdomen. A spokeswoman for a hospital in the city wrote to the Reuters news agency by email that Fico was responsive when he was admitted.
What is known about the attacker?
After the attack, the Slovakian Interior Minister confirmed media reports about the identity of the suspected attacker. When asked whether it was a 71-year-old writer from central Slovakia, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said in the evening: “I think I can confirm that, yes.” According to media reports, the man comes from the town of Levice, around 150 kilometers east of Bratislava, and is the founder of a literature club. Accordingly, he is also a member of the official Slovakian Writers’ Association, which they later confirmed via Facebook. If it is confirmed that this is the suspected attacker, the membership of “this despicable person” will be terminated.
According to reports, the perpetrator is Juraj C., a former employee of a private security service. This was not initially officially confirmed. The Interior Minister simply said that the perpetrator had “a clearly political motive,” as an initial interrogation revealed.
The TV news channel TA3 and other media were leaked a video recording from the police station. In it, the dazed-looking suspected attacker says: “I don’t agree with government policy.” As an example, he mentioned in an indistinct voice the government’s planned media reform, against which thousands of people have been demonstrating for weeks. According to media reports, the wife of the alleged perpetrator was also questioned by the police.
The man’s son told the Slovakian news portal aktuality.sk that his father legally owned a gun. When asked whether his father felt hatred for Prime Minister Fico, he replied: “He didn’t vote for him, I can’t say anything more about that.”
Interior Minister Sutaj Estok announced increased police protection for politicians and journalists. At the same time, he called on the media, politicians from all camps and the public to stop “incitement against political opponents on social media”. The liberal opposition leader Michal Simecka canceled all political actions for an indefinite period on Wednesday evening.
Slovak Prime Minister
Populist and Russia friend: Who is Robert Fico?
What are the reactions after the attack?
After the attack became known, consternation spread across European capitals.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was “shocked” by the shots fired at the Slovakian head of government. On X, Scholz spoke of a “cowardly attack.” Violence should have “no place in European politics.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We strongly condemn this act of violence against the head of government of our neighboring partner state.” Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke of a “cowardly attack”. “I condemn in the strongest terms all forms of violence and attacks on the basic principles of democracy and freedom,” she emphasized. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he was “deeply shocked by the attack on my friend” Fico.
Reactions in Brussels were also horrified. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the “despicable attack”. “Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our greatest common good,” she wrote on the online service X. “Nothing can ever justify violence or such attacks,” said EU Council President Charles Michel. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “shocked and horrified.”
From the White House to the Kremlin, there was great sympathy. US President Joe Biden condemned the shooting of the Slovakian head of government as a “terrible act of violence”. He and his wife Jill prayed for Fico’s speedy recovery, Biden wrote in a statement released by the White House. “Our thoughts are with his family and the Slovak people,” it said. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attack a “heinous crime.” “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-willed man. I very much hope that these qualities will help him get through this difficult situation,” he said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
Was the attack politically motivated?
According to the Slovak government’s assessment, the assassination attempt on Fico had a “political motive.” This is what the preliminary investigations indicate, as Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told journalists at the clinic in Banska Bystrica late in the evening. The minister literally spoke of “a clear political motive” behind the attack in the town of Handlova. “There is no doubt about that,” added Defense Secretary Robert Kalinak.
Just a few days ago, Fico himself accused the liberal opposition of fomenting a climate of hostility against his government. Given the heated atmosphere, it cannot be ruled out that an act of violence could occur at some point. The founder and head of the left-wing party Smer-SSD, which has recently become increasingly nationalistic, has been one of the most popular politicians in Slovakia for almost 30 years. But at the same time he polarizes like no other.
Fico is controversial in Europe because of his often exaggerated formulations on the EU’s Ukraine and Russia policy. During the election campaign for the parliamentary election in autumn 2023, which he won, he made people sit up and take notice with the announcement that he no longer wanted to supply “cartridges” of weapons to Ukraine. In fact, since Fico’s return to government in October, Slovakia has not supported all EU sanctions against Russia and has not agreed to all EU aid to Ukraine – including the use of frozen Russian funds for Ukraine and support for Ukraine’s accession to the EU but to NATO.
Most recently, the Prime Minister caused mass protests in the country with controversial changes. His government decided on a much-criticized reform of public broadcasting, which, according to journalists’ associations and opposition representatives, undermines press freedom. At a press conference after the shooting, MP Lubos Blaha from Fico’s Smer party attacked the head of government’s critics: “You, the liberal media, and progressive politicians, are to blame. Robert Fico is fighting for his life because of your hatred,” said Blaha.
What does Slovakia’s prime minister stand for politically?
Fico has been shaping politics in Slovakia for almost two decades. In four terms as head of government, he has endeared himself to a large part of the Slovak population, for example by rejecting tough austerity measures during the financial crisis from 2008. With his tough stance on the issue of migration and his country’s rapprochement with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he has come a long way caused a stir about Slovakia.
After his Smer-SD party’s election victory last September, Fico once again became head of government in the country with around 5.4 million inhabitants. In a coalition with far-right parties, the populist implemented the change in foreign policy that he had promised during the election campaign: Slovakia, a member of the EU and NATO and until then a staunch supporter of Ukraine, interrupted arms deliveries to the country attacked by Russia neighboring country. Among other things, the 59-year-old called on the government in Kiev to cede territory to Russia.
Fico began his political career with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia shortly before the Velvet Revolution brought down the system. In 1999 – six years after the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Fico left the left-wing SDL party, which had inherited the communist legacy in Bratislava. He founded the social democratic Smer-SD (Smer means direction).
Note: This article is continually updated.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
