EGN NEWS DESK
A gunman shot Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, who is understood for defying his fellow leaders within the European Union, a number of occasions at shut vary on Wednesday, in probably the most critical assault on a European chief in a long time.
Mr. Fico was shot after rising from the House of Culture in Handlova, a city in central Slovakia, as he greeted a small crowd in Banikov Square. He was rushed to a close-by hospital, then airlifted to a different hospital for emergency surgical procedure.
Hours later, the deputy prime minister, Tomas Taraba, informed the BBC that Mr. Fico’s scenario was not life-threatening, and he anticipated the prime minister to outlive.
The gunman, recognized by Slovak information retailers as a 71-year-old poet, was instantly wrestled to the bottom by safety officers.
The inside minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, mentioned at a information convention that Mr. Fico was shot 5 occasions and that the preliminary proof “clearly factors to a political motivation.” Asked to call the attacker, he mentioned, “Not right now.”
The tried assassination stoked fears that Europe’s more and more polarized and venomous political debates had tipped into violence.
Mr. Fico started his three-decade political profession as a leftist however through the years shifted to the precise. He served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018, earlier than returning to energy in elections final yr. After being ousted amid road protests in 2018, he was re-elected on a platform of social conservatism, nationalism and guarantees of beneficiant welfare applications.
His opposition to army assist for Ukraine, pleasant relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and different positions have put him outdoors the European mainstream. Like his ally Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, Mr. Fico has been a frequent critic of the European Union.
Like Mr. Orban and the Dutch far-right chief Geert Wilders, Mr. Fico has delighted in presenting himself as a pugnacious fighter for the widespread man, a forthright enemy of liberal elites and a bulwark towards immigration from outdoors Europe, notably by Muslims.
His critics have accused Mr. Fico of undermining the independence of the information media, opposed his efforts to limit international funding of civic organizations and known as him a risk to democracy. They accuse Mr. Fico of in search of to take Slovakia again to the repressive days of the Soviet bloc.
Mr. Fico’s political profession seemed to be over after his ouster in 2018, however he discovered new assist final yr by selling anti-L.G.B.T.Q. positions, attacking the European Union as a risk to nationwide sovereignty and opposing the continued provide of weapons to Ukraine.
In his tenure as prime minister, Slovakia grew to become the primary nation to cease sending weapons to Ukraine, although nonmilitary support continued.
His return to energy final yr mirrored a wider pattern throughout a lot of Europe: the decline of assist for center-left and center-right events that calmly traded locations after elections and agreed on most issues.
The capturing was captured on movies, which present Mr. Fico, 59, approaching a small group of individuals behind a waist-high steel barrier, when an older man stepped ahead and fired a handgun from just some ft away.
On a video from Radio and Television of Slovakia, a public broadcaster, and verified by The New York Times, 5 obvious gunshots could be heard.
With the primary bang, Mr. Fico doubled over on the waist and fell backward onto a bench as extra had been heard. Security officers then hustled him right into a black Audi a number of ft away, half-carrying him to the automobile’s rear door.
A submit on the prime minister’s official and verified Facebook web page mentioned that Mr. Fico was in “life-threatening situation.” “The subsequent few hours will determine,” the submit mentioned. Government officers didn’t say what a part of his physique was hit.
There was no fast remark from the police concerning the assault, probably the most critical try on the lifetime of a European head of presidency since Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic of Serbia was assassinated in 2003.
The capturing drew a refrain of condemnation from world leaders, together with President Biden, who known as it a “horrific act of violence,” and Mr. Putin, who lauded Mr. Fico as a “brave and strong-minded man.”
The president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova, whose place is essentially ceremonial, mentioned in an announcement, “The capturing of the prime minister is at first an assault on a human being — however it’s additionally an assault on democracy.”
Some of Mr. Fico’s allies in Parliament instructed that his liberal opponents had created the environment for the capturing.
Michal Simecka, the chairman of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia, mentioned he shared within the “horror” of the assault however warned towards spreading “false info” concerning the assailant. In a submit on the social-media platform X, he harassed that the attacker was not a member of his motion or linked to his party in any approach.
Mr. Fico stepped down as prime minister in 2018, after weeks of mass demonstrations over the murders of a journalist, who was uncovering authorities corruption, and his fiancée. Protesters mentioned the federal government was not enthusiastic about fixing the crime. Several folks had been later convicted of involvement within the murders, however a businessman accused of orchestrating them was acquitted.
Reporting was contributed by Gaya Gupta, Pavol Strba, Daniel Victor, Lauren Leatherby, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Matina Stevis-Gridneff.
