Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and wounded immediately after the government meeting in Handlova, near Bratislava. The alleged attacker, a 71-year-old man from Levice, was arrested by the police.
Fico was shot in front of a cultural center, where a government meeting was being held. According to journalists present at the scene, several shots were heard. The Slovak leader was taken to hospital by air ambulance, his injuries were considered very serious, but the Slovak prime minister “would be out of danger at the moment”. “They are about to operate on him,” add the sources, who also say that the prime minister would have spoken to the medical staff.
According to preliminary investigations by the Slovak police, the man who shot, wounding him in the stomach and one arm with three or four shots, aimed precisely at the prime minister.
The reactions
“I am completely shocked by today’s brutal and reckless attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico, which I condemn in the strongest possible way”, these are the words of the Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova, on X. «I wish him a lot of strength in this critical moment and a speedy recovery – he wrote -. My thoughts also go to his family and loved ones.”
The President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen also chose X for her comment: «I strongly condemn the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico. Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts turn to Prime Minister Fico and his family.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban joins the chorus: «I was deeply shocked by the atrocious attack against my friend, Prime Minister Robert Fico – he writes in X -. We pray for his health and a speedy recovery! God bless him and his country.”
Matteo Salvini offers words of affection: «Our affectionate solidarity and closeness to him, his family and the Slovak people». Foreign Minister Antonio Tajania is waiting for more information: «Certainly these are worrying things, there shouldn’t be violence in Europe. But we need to understand what it is, it’s too early to make a comment, we don’t know if it’s a terrorist thing or if it’s a deranged person.”
