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Radovan Stoklasa

Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot and seriously injured Wednesday — a shocking act of violence that left the populist leader “fighting for his life” and his country reeling.

In an evening news conference at the hospital, Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said Fico had “multiple injuries” and had been in surgery for hours.

“His condition is very complicated,” Kalinak said.

Officials said a suspect was in custody. The shooter’s motive remained unclear. But uncertainty about whether Fico would make it, and finger-pointing by politicians, heightened tensions in an already politically polarized nation.

The shooting took place Wednesday in the town of Handlova, where the prime minister had attended a government meeting at a cultural center. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87p40FPnqTM" target=_blank>News video</a> showed him striding with his entourage toward members of the public who were standing outside. He was shaking hands with people, reaching across a chest-high metal barrier, when a man in a button-down shirt appeared to start shooting at close range. In the footage, the attacker can be heard firing five shots before being tackled by security officers in dark suits.

After being carried to a black car, Fico was flown by helicopter to the hospital.

Late in the night, Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC that the surgery had gone well and “I guess in the end he will survive.” But there were no formal updates on Fico’s condition.

“An attack on the prime minister is first and foremost an attack on a human being. But it’s also an attack on democracy,” said Slovakia’s outgoing president, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zcaputova" target=_blank>Zuzana Caputova</a>. She urged people to refrain from “hasty judgments” before more information is known.

President-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/PellegriniP_/status/1790748528177782929" target=_blank>Peter Pellegrini</a>, who takes office next month, said the attack represented “a threat to everything that up till now adorned Slovak democracy.”

“If we express different political opinions with guns in the squares, and not in polling stations, we endanger everything we have built together in 31 years of Slovak sovereignty,” he said.

The lack of information about the shooter’s possible motives did not stop Fico’s populist allies from casting blame. Even as they called for calm, they accused the political opposition and journalists of spreading hate and creating an environment that encourages attacks.

“This assassination attempt was politically motivated, and the motivation was born immediately after the elections,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said at the hospital.

At an earlier news conference, Lubos Blaha, deputy chairman of Fico’s party, Smer, turned to opposition deputies and said, “This is your work.”

Andrej Danko, a coalition partner, shouted at reporters, “Are you happy?”

Leaders across Europe and around the world expressed shock and outrage at the attack.

“We condemn this horrific act of violence,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a> said in a statement. “Our embassy is in close touch with the government of Slovakia and ready to assist.”

Fico has served multiple stints as Slovakia’s prime minister, most recently returning to power after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/29/who-is-robert-fico-slovakia-elections/#LSWMB3XKYRALRAPBVQHPTFUQSI-2" target=_blank>winning an election in the fall</a>. He was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/how-slovakia-stood-up-to-a-journalists-murder-and-kicked-out-its-prime-minister/2018/03/28/c73bb078-2c40-11e8-8dc9-3b51e028b845_story.html" target=_blank>forced out</a> in 2018 amid public outrage over the killing of a journalist who had been investigating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/28/these-are-the-corruption-allegations-that-may-have-gotten-a-slovak-journalist-killed/" target=_blank>ties</a> between his associates and the Italian mafia. But he made a comeback by capitalizing on growing skepticism about the war in Ukraine and frustration with a cost-of-living crisis.

Joe Snell

Russian President Vladimir Putin was among those who condemned the shooting. “There can be no justification for this monstrous crime,” he wrote to Caputova, as reported by Reuters. “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-minded man. I very much hope that these qualities will help him to survive this difficult situation.”

Pavol Hardos, a political scientist at Comenius University in Bratislava, said the shooting spotlighted polarization in Slovakia and could deepen it. “It’s too early to say what the ramifications will be, but some government politicians already said that this amounts to a declaration of war,” he said.

Hardos said he worried that Fico’s party would use the attack as an argument to continue its effort to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/slovakia-public-broadcaster-rtvs-robert-fico-press-freedom-slovak-television-and-radio/" target=_blank>exert control over radio and television</a>, for instance. “This will be a useful excuse for doing all the things they wanted to do,” he said. “They will be able to make the necessary steps even faster than they planned.”

Slovakia’s major opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, announced after the shooting that they had canceled a planned demonstration against the government’s proposed overhaul of public broadcasting.

Progressive Slovakia rejected any connection between the attacker and its party or movement, adding in a statement: “We are concerned about the further escalation of tension in society.”

Overseas Press Club of America, Bob Considine Award, 2017

International China Journalists Association, General Excellence, 2016

International Human Rights Press Awards, Certificate of Merit, 2011, 2012

Columbia University, MS in journalism, 2007

University of Toronto, MA in international relations, 2006

Queen's University, BA in political science, 2005

Emily Rauhala is the Brussels bureau chief for The Washington Post, covering the European Union and NATO.

Emily Rauhala

Ladka Bauerova

washpost

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico shot and gravely injured

the-washington-post

Shooting incident after Slovak government meeting in Handlova

Reuters

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