After being shot many times on Wednesday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a stable but critical state, according to medical professionals.
After five hours in surgery, the hospital director reported he was now in an intensive care unit.
Prior to this, Mr. Fico, 59, was reportedly struggling for his life following an incident in the little village of Handlova that left him severely injured.
At the scene of the incident, a suspect was taken into custody.
Mr. Fico’s health “is truly very serious,” according to Miriam Lapunikova, director of the F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where he was hospitalized.
Earlier, Mr. Fico’s operation went “well,” according to Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba, who also said, “I guess that at the end he will survive.”
It was an attempt at assassination with political motivation, according to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estoka.
Because of his demands to lift sanctions on Russia and to stop providing military support to Ukraine, Mr. Fico is a contentious figure both at home and in the EU.
However, the shooting has drawn widespread outrage and been called an assault on democracy.
Gunman fired at close range:
The prime minister was having a meeting at a cultural center in Handlova when a small group of Fico supporters assembled outside the building included the gunman.
The security guards for Mr. Fico were totally unprepared for the incident. After being shot, the prime minister is shown on camera being taken away from the scene by a number of cops, who then load him into a car.
Mr. Fico was struck in the arm and stomach by five close-range rounds fired by the assailant.
According to Ms. Lapunikova, he was flown to the hospital in an air ambulance and underwent five hours of operation by trauma and surgical teams.
Mr. Taraba stated that Mr. Fico was “not in [a] life-threatening situation at this moment” later on Wednesday on the BBC’s Newshour program.
“From very close,” he said, the prime minister was shot; “one bullet went through the stomach and the second one hit the joint.”
How Robert Fico rose to dominate Slovak politics:
The supposed suspect has not yet been named by the police. Unverified local media sources claim that he was a political activist and writer who was 71 years old.
There is a video circulating on Slovak media that seems to show the suspect.
The individual in the video expresses his disagreement with government policies and its treatment of state media. The circumstances surrounding the video’s capture are unknown to the BBC, nor is it known if the individual in it is the offender who was arrested there.
The incident occurred on the same day that parliament started debating the government’s plan to disband RTVS, Slovakia’s national broadcaster.
In recent weeks, thousands of Slovaks have demonstrated against the planned changes to the national broadcaster. However, as soon as word of the shooting spread on Wednesday, a scheduled protest sponsored by the opposition was canceled.
Deputy Prime Minister Taraba blamed “false narratives” by Slovakia’s opposition parties for the shooting in an interview with the BBC.
In a separate interview with the BBC’s World Tonight program, Mr. Taraba stated, “Our prime minister has stated on multiple occasions that he was afraid that this would happen.”
When the incident occurred, Parliament was in session. According to Slovak media, one of Mr. Fico’s party colleagues yelled at opposition Members of Parliament, accusing them of inciting the attack.
At a news conference, Interior Minister Mr. Estok said that the media was part of the atmosphere that precipitated the killing of the 59-year-old, saying, “Many of you were those who were sowing this hatred.”
In addition, Mr. Estok expressed his belief that “this assassination [attempt] was politically motivated”.
Zuzana Caputova, the departing president of Slovakia, reacted to the attack by saying that something “so serious had happened that we can’t even realise it yet”.
“The hateful rhetoric we witness in society leads to hateful acts,” she stated.
Following the assassination attempt, Slovakia’s cabinet and state security council are scheduled to meet on Thursday morning.