Slovakian PM Robert Fico stable but ‘not out of the woods’ after shooting

The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable condition but “not out of the woods yet”, officials have said, as they appealed for calm after a shooting that laid bare the deep political divisions of recent months.

At least five shots were fired at Fico, 59, on Wednesday as he met a small group of supporters after a government meeting in the town of Handlová, about 90 miles (150km) north-east of the capital, Bratislava.

The country’s interior minister described the suspect in the shooting as a man who had acted alone and who had participated in anti-government protests. “This is a lone wolf who had radicalised himself in the latest period after the presidential election,” Matúš Šutaj Eštok told reporters on Thursday.

He described the attack as politically motivated, suggesting the suspect had disagreed with the government plans involving the media and the justice system.

The defence minister, Robert Kaliňák, said the assassination attempt had been premeditated. He said on Thursday afternoon that Fico was in a stable condition but that it was too early to say the outlook was positive. “He’s still not out of the woods yet,” he said.

“Unfortunately I cannot say yet that we are winning or that the prognosis is positive because the extent of the injuries caused by four gunshot wounds is so extensive that the body’s response will still be very difficult.”

The shooting comes three weeks before European parliament elections, with polls suggesting that populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc will make gains.

On Thursday, Peter Pellegrini, Slovakia’s president-elect and an ally of Fico, called on parties to suspend or tone down their campaigning.

“I am calling on all political parties in Slovakia to temporarily suspend or considerably reduce their European election campaign,” Pellegrini said in a statement, adding Slovakia should avoid “further confrontation”.

Local media identified the alleged shooter as Juraj Cintula, 71, from Levice in south-central Slovakia. He is said to be a former security guard at a shopping centre, the author of three books of poetry, and to have spoken on YouTube of his desire to form a political movement.

On Thursday, several police officers were stationed at the entrance of the unassuming grey apartment block where Cintula had lived for 40 years.

The news outlet Aktuality.sk cited the suspect’s son as saying his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.

In an undated video posted on Facebook, a man – whom Reuters verified as the alleged attacker – was seen saying: “I do not agree with government policy.”

Fico was taken to a hospital in the city of Banská Bystrica after the shooting. Hours later, Kaliňák said medical workers were “fighting for the life” of Fico. He described the shooting as a clear “political assault”.

On Thursday morning, Miriam Lapunikova, the director of the hospital, said the prime minister had undergone five hours of surgery with two teams to treat multiple gunshot wounds. Slovakian media reported that Fico was placed in an artificial coma after the operation.

“At this point his condition is stabilised but is truly very serious, he will be in the intensive care unit,” Lapunikova said.

Kaliňák told reporters outside the hospital: “During the night doctors managed to stabilise the patient’s condition. Unfortunately his condition continues to be very serious due to the complicated nature of the wounds, but we all want to believe firmly that we will succeed in managing the situation.”

Late on Wednesday, the deputy prime minister, Tomáš Taraba, told the BBC that Fico was expected to survive. “He was heavily injured – one bullet went through the stomach and the second one hit the joint. Immediately he was transported to the hospital and then to the operation.”

As Slovaks commuted to work on Thursday, many were still processing the news. Mária Szabó, a shopkeeper in Bratislava, said: “I don’t have words for this. This should never have happened in the 21st century, no matter who you vote for. Our country is heading in the wrong direction.”

Fico, a veteran populist politician, returned to power in elections last year after promises not to send “another bullet” to Ukraine, criticism of sanctions targeting Russia, and campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights.

The first months of his return have proved divisive, with thousands of people taking to streets across the country to protest against measures that critics have warned will imperil freedom of the press, and the elimination of a special prosecutor post that deals with major crime and corruption.

Fico has fiercely criticised Slovakia’s mainstream media and refused to speak to some outlets, while members of his party have taken aim at media and opposition actions in recent months.

The tensions were heightened by last month’s hard-fought presidential elections in which Fico tightened his grip on power as his ally Pellegrini won.

Eštok, the interior minister, said on Wednesday that the country was “on the edge of a civil war”, adding: “Such hateful comments are being made on social networks today, so please, let’s stop this immediately.”

Eštok described the assassination attempt as politically motivated, telling reporters that the “perpetrator’s decision was born closely after the presidential election”.

The Slovak president, Zuzana Čaputová, said she would invite all parliamentary party leaders for a joint meeting in an attempt to “calm” the political tensions that have been exacerbated after the shooting.

“Let us step out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations,” she said at a news conference in Bratislava. “What happened yesterday was an individual act. But the tense atmosphere of hatred was our collective work.”

She made her statement alongside Pellegrini, her political rival, in a joint effort to temper the recent political tensions.

Gábor Czímer, a political journalist at the Slovakian news outlet Ujszo.com, told the Associated Press that Fico’s return to power had laid bare how “Slovak society is strongly split into two camps” – one that was friendly towards Russia and another that pushed for stronger connections with the EU and the west.

“At the same time, I couldn’t imagine that it would lead to physical violence,” Czímer said.

The shooting – the first major assassination attempt on a European political leader in more than 20 years – sent shock waves across Europe, with leaders linking the violence to an increasingly febrile and polarised political climate across the continent.

In Germany, where three elected officials were recently assaulted in less than a week, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he had been left reeling by Fico’s shooting. “Violence must have no place in European politics,” he wrote on X.