Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s life is no longer in danger after he was shot in an assassination attempt as he left a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said.
Fico was shot five times by the gunman, with the prime minister initially left in a critical condition and undergoing surgery hours later on Wednesday night.
“I was very shocked… fortunately, as far as I know, the operation went well – and I assume that he will survive in the end… he is not in danger at the moment,” said the Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environmental Protection Tomas A stall for the BBC Newshour.
He said one bullet went through Fitz’s stomach and another hit his wrist.
News portal Aktuality.sk quoted an unnamed source as saying that Fico is in a stable condition.
Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said at a briefing a few hours earlier that Fico had suffered “serious polytrauma” from several gunshot wounds.
The Minister of the Interior, Matus Šutaj Estok, previously said that Fico’s life was in danger while he remained in the operating room.
“This assassination (attempt) was politically motivated and the perpetrator’s decision was made immediately after the presidential elections,” said Sutaj Estok, referring to the April elections in which Fico’s ally Peter Pellegrini won.
The assassination in the central Slovak town of Handlovi, which Slovakian media say was carried out by a 71-year-old man, stunned the small central European nation and sparked international condemnation.
Slovakia, a member of NATO and the European Union, has little history of political violence. Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden joined Slovakia’s EU partners in expressing shock and condemnation of the assassination, Fena writes.
