Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in critical condition after being shot many times in an attempted assassination on Wednesday.
“He has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition,” according to Fico’s official Facebook account. “The next few hours will decide.”
The assassination attempt occurred after a meeting and subsequent press conference in the town of Handlova while Fico greeted supporters.
Slovakian president Zuzana Caputova wrote in a post on X that she was “utterly shocked by today’s brutal attack,” which she condemned “in strongest possible terms.
“I wish him lots of strength in this critical moment and early recovery,” Caputova said. “My thoughts are also with his family and close ones.”
Caputova gave a televised address after the shooting in which she, a political rival of Fico, argued that the rise of domestic tensions in Slovakia mirroring the politics of many other countries in the region is to blame for the violence.
A suspect had also been arrested and is in law-enforcement custody.
Describing the attempted assassination as “an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy,” Pellegrini, a former prime minister and country’s president elect warned, that “if we express other political opinions with pistols in squares, and not in polling stations, we are jeopardizing everything that we have built together over 31 years of Slovak sovereignty.”
Fico is an opponent of providing aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, and has aligned with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, according to the New York Times.
He has cast supporters of Ukraine as disloyal lackeys of the United States, according to the Times.
Despite Fico’s shaky relationship with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union head wrote on X that she condemns “the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico.”
“Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most previous common good,” von der Leyen wrote. “My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.”
