Brian McDonald
The Slovak Interior Minister said Thursday that a “lone wolf” was accused in the shooting which seriously injured Prime Minister Robert Fico and provoked soul-searching among the leaders of a deeply divided society.
Fico was in serious but stable condition on Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit several times in an attack. attempt on his life which shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before the European elections.
O assassination attempt shocked the small Central European nation, with many blaming the attack, in part, on the extreme political polarization that divided the country.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said on Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico as he attended a government meeting in a former coal mining town. However, he said Thursday that the accused suspect was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political group.”
The minister did not specify what the motivation was. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and elsewhere, and his return to power Last year’s pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater concerns among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course.
Nadja Wohlleben/REUTERS
The attempt on Fico’s life came at a time of great division in Slovakia, when thousands of protesters repeatedly gathered in the capital and across the country to protest his policies. It also comes just before the June elections for the European Parliament.
The outgoing president and the next president of Slovakia — political rivals — appeared together in a call for Slovaks to overcome their increasingly tense political differences for the good of the country.
Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, an opponent of Fico, said Thursday that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm, saying the attack was a reflection of an increasingly polarized society.
“We will break out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations,” Caputova said at a press conference in the capital Bratislava. “What happened yesterday was an individual act. But the tense atmosphere of hate was our collective work.”
President-elect Peter Pellegrini called on political parties to suspend or reduce their campaigns for the European elections, which will take place from 6 to 9 June, to avoid “impasses and mutual accusations between politicians”.
“If there is something that the people of Slovakia urgently need today, it is at least a basic agreement and unity among the Slovak political representation. And if not a consensus, then please at least civilized ways of discussing among themselves,” Pelligrini said.
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Fico’s government, elected last September, caused controversy by suspending weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and has plans to change the criminal code to eliminate a special anti-corruption prosecutor and take control of public media. His critics fear that he will lead Slovakia – a nation of 5.4 million people that belongs to NATO – down a more autocratic path.
Zuzana Eliasova, a resident of the capital Bratislava, said the attack on Fico was a “shock” for the nation and an attack on democracy at a time when political tensions were already high.
“I think a lot of people or even the entire society will look at their conscience, because the polarization here has been huge between all the different parts of society,” she said.
Doctors performed a five-hour operation on Fico, who was initially in a life-threatening condition, according to the director of the FD Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova. He is being treated in an intensive care unit.
Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 85 miles northeast of the capital, government officials said.
Slovak police did not provide information about the shooter’s identity. But unconfirmed media reports suggested he was a 71-year-old retiree known as an amateur poet and who may have previously worked as a security guard at a shopping mall in the southwest of the country.
Slovakia’s Security Council was due to meet in the capital Bratislava on Thursday to discuss the situation, a government office said, adding that a cabinet meeting would follow.
Fico returned to power in Slovakia last year, having previously served twice as prime minister. He and his Smer party have often been described as left-wing populists, although he has also been compared to right-wing politicians such as the nationalist prime minister of neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orbán.
Fico’s return caused concern among his critics that he and his party – which had long been tainted by scandal – would move Slovakia away from the Western mainstream. He promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organizations and campaigned against LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite the controversy surrounding Fico’s leadership, condemnation of the attack came from both his allies and opponents. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to President Caputova, expressing his support and wishing the Prime Minister a speedy and full recovery.
“This atrocious crime cannot be justified,” Putin said in the message released by the Kremlin. “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-willed person. I sincerely hope that these personal qualities will help him overcome this difficult situation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also denounced violence against the head of government of a neighboring country.
“Every effort must be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.
