Slovakia’s Prime Minister Fico was no longer in a ‘life-threatening condition, following an operation that went well, according to Deputy prime minister Tomáš Taraba.
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Security men bundle a wounded Robert Fico into a limousine shortly after he was shot.
Slovakia’s interior minister, Matúš Šutaj-Eštok, said the perpetrator of the attack fired at Fico five times. He said initial information “clearly points to a political motivation”. A suspect was in custody, the country’s president, Zuzana Caputova, said in a televised statement.
According to the news publisher Denník N, Fico was shot in the abdomen and left arm.
Explainer: Who is Robert Fico?
Jon Henley
Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, was shot today in the town of Handlová, where he had been meeting supporters, and taken to hospital.
Born into a working-class family on 15 September 1964, Fico – a lawyer by profession – began his political career with the Communist party shortly before the 1989 Velvet Revolution that led to the breakup of former Czechoslovakia.
He set up his centre-left Smer-SD party in 1999 after being turned down for a ministerial post by the Democratic Left, the Communists’ political heirs.
Embroiled in allegations of corruption he has always denied, Fico is brash and outspoken, with a penchant for bodybuilding, football and fast cars.
Fico admires both Vladimir Putin, saying he would not permit the Russian president’s arrest under an international warrant if he came to Slovakia, and Hungary’s illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán, “who defends the interests of his country and his people”.
The Smer leader is also a tactician: in a three-decade career, he has navigated successfully between mainstream, pro-EU positions and a fiercely nationalist, anti-western rhetoric destined mainly for domestic consumption, proving more than willing to change tack depending on public opinion or political reality.
