The life of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in danger, even if his condition remains serious, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak declared to the press this Sunday, four days after the attempted murder of which the head of government been the target. “There is no longer any immediate danger to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care,” said Robert Kalinak, Robert Fico’s closest political ally.
The Prime Minister has been hospitalized since Wednesday, when a man opened fire on him, hitting him several times, notably in the abdomen. He underwent a five-hour operation on Wednesday and a shorter one on Friday, both at a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia.
“Lone wolf”… or not?
“We can consider that his condition is stable and that the prognosis is positive,” Robert Kalinak said outside the hospital. “We all feel a little more relaxed now,” he added, specifying that Robert Fico would not be transferred to Bratislava for the moment and would remain hospitalized in Banska Bystrica. The assailant, identified by Slovak media as Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old former security guard, fired five shots at Robert Fico, hitting him four times.
He was presented on Saturday before the criminal court in Pezinok, northeast of Bratislava, which ordered him to remain in pre-trial detention. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok stressed that if one of the shots had hit Robert Fico “a few centimeters higher”, it would have hit the liver. He said police were examining the possibility that the shooter, initially presented as a “lone wolf”, did not act alone but was part of “a group of people who encouraged each other to commit the crime”. .
Attempts to appease the outgoing president and the president-elect
According to him, someone erased the suspect’s traces and communication history on Facebook after his arrest. Robert Fico, 59, returned to the post of Prime Minister last fall for a fourth term, after his party, Smer-SD, won the legislative elections. He campaigned in particular on stopping military aid to Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which his government subsequently implemented.
The assassination attempt deeply shocked Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million inhabitants, member of the European Union and NATO, which has been sharply divided politically for years. The outgoing pro-Western president, Zuzana Caputova, and her successor, Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Robert Fico who will take office in June, have called on their fellow citizens to refrain from any “confrontation”.