Slovakia’s PM Fico in life-threatening condition after attack

Brussels – Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was injured following a shooting in the town of Handlová and now lies in a hospital in Banská Bystrica in life-threatening conditions. The news was given by local Slovak media, which released the dynamics of the shooting that took place today (May 15) at the end of a public meeting outside the capital.

The prime minister of
Slovakia and leader of the ruling SMER-SD party had just arrived to welcome a
small group of people after leaving the cultural centre where he had met with
his cabinet ministers when witnesses heard several gunshots and PM Fico was hit in the abdomen, chest, and a limb by gunfire. The 71-year-old man suspected to be the killer, hiding in the crowd at the time of the attempted assassination, was stopped by passersby and security forces and then arrested by the police. Fico was taken away in his official car and then to the hospital by helicopter, and a government report states that Fico is “in life-threatening condition”.

Messages of sympathy to the Slovak premier come from the European capitals after the attack, as well as from Brussels. “I strongly condemn the vile attack” is the immediate comment with a post on X from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen: “Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good.”

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