Slovakia’s prime minister in critical condition after being shot

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico got hurt in a shooting after a political event on Wednesday. His condition is very serious and life-threatening. This information was shared on his Facebook page.

News from a Slovakian TV station called TA3 said Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is 59 years old, was shot in the stomach four times outside the House of Culture in a town called Handlova, which is 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the capital city. He was meeting with his supporters when the shooting happened. They caught a suspect, it was reported.

A message on Fico’s Facebook said that the leader was shot many times and is in critical condition. Right now, he is being taken by helicopter to Banska Bystrica because it would take too long to get to Bratislava for an urgent procedure. The next couple of hours will make the decision.

The shooting in Slovakia happened three weeks before important European Parliament elections. Populist and hard-right parties in the 27-country bloc are expected to do well in the elections.

Lubos Blaha, the deputy speaker of parliament, said that an incident happened during a meeting in Slovakia’s Parliament, so they stopped the meeting for now. This was reported by the Slovak TASR news agency.

Slovakia’s main opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, called off a protest against a government plan to change public broadcasting. They think the plan would let the government have total control over public radio and TV.

“We are completely against violence and strongly condemn the shooting of Premier Robert Fico today,” said Michal Simecka, leader of Progressive Slovakia. “We ask all politicians to avoid saying or doing things that could make the situation more tense. ”

President Zuzana Caputova criticized a very violent and cruel attack on the prime minister.

“I can’t believe it,” Caputova said. I hope Robert Fico feels better soon and gets through this tough time with strength.

Fico, who is the prime minister for the third time, and his left-leaning Smer party, won the September election in Slovakia. 30 elections will happen and a political party is making a comeback by talking about supporting Russia and not liking America.

Critics were concerned that Slovakia under Fico would stop supporting Western countries and start following the same path as Hungary under their popular Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Many people have gathered in the capital and all over Slovakia to protest against Fico’s policies.

Leaders in Europe spoke out against political violence, but it wasn’t known why the attack happened yet.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, criticized a very bad attack.

“Violence like this has no place in our society and it goes against democracy, which is very important for all of us,” von der Leyen said in a message on X.

The Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, said the incident was very surprising and he hopes the leader gets better soon. We don’t like violence, there’s no room for it in society. The Czech Republic and Slovakia were together as Czechoslovakia until 1992.

The leader of Poland, Donald Tusk, wrote on social media X that he was surprised by the news from Slovakia. Robert, I am thinking of you during this tough time.