On Thursday, the interior minister of Slovakia said that one person acted alone and has been charged for shooting and seriously injuring Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The small country in central Europe was shocked by the attempted murder, and its leaders are saying it was because the people are very divided and have extreme politics.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said at a press conference that the man who was charged is not a member of any political groups.
Slovak leaders want everyone to stay calm after the Prime Minister was shot several times on Wednesday. It was a surprise because political violence rarely happens in the country, even though the politicians are very divided.
Fico is in serious but stable condition after being attacked. The attack shocked the small country and had an impact across Europe before the European elections.
They caught a suspect, and the Interior Minister said they think the attack on Fico was because of politics. Fico was at a government meeting in an old coal mining town when it happened.
The minister did not say why they did it. Many people in Slovakia and other countries disagree about Fico. When he came back into power last year with a message that supported Russia and went against America, it made other European Union members worried that he would stop supporting the West.
Someone tried to kill Fico on Wednesday. People in Slovakia are very divided right now and thousands of protestors are demonstrating in the capital and around the country to show they are against his policies. It comes before the June elections for the European Parliament.
Former President Zuzana Caputova, who had disagreements with Fico, said on Thursday that the leaders of the country’s political parties would get together to try to bring peace and stop any violence.
“We ask everyone to be responsible,” Caputova said at a press conference in Bratislava.
Caputova was talking with Peter Pellegrini, who is a friend of Fico and will be the next president of Slovakia. They both spoke together to try to calm down the angry political arguments in the country. They want people in Slovakia to stay united and not let politics divide them.
“This attempt to kill someone should be strongly condemned by everyone,” said Pellegrini. “I ask everyone in Slovakia to stop or lessen their European Parliament election campaigning, because campaigning leads to conflict, and we don’t need conflict right now in Slovakia. ”
Fico’s new government, chosen last September, has stopped sending weapons to Ukraine. They also want to change the rules so that a special prosecutor who deals with corruption cases is no longer in charge, and they want to control the public TV and radio stations. People who disagree with him are concerned that he might take Slovakia, a country with 5. 4 million people that is in NATO, in a more controlling and dictatorial direction.
Zuzana Eliasova, who lives in Bratislava, said that the attack on Fico was a big surprise for the country. She also said it was an attack on democracy when political issues were already causing a lot of tension.
“I think many people and the whole society will think about their actions, because there has been a lot of division within society. “
Surgeons operated on Fico for five hours. At first, Fico was said to be in very bad condition. This is what the director of the F. DMiriam Lapunikova works at the Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica. He is getting special help in a special room.
Five gunshots were heard outside a cultural center in Handlova, a town about 85 miles northeast of the capital. Government officials confirmed this.
Slovakia’s leaders were going to meet in Bratislava to talk about the situation on Thursday. After that, they would have a government meeting.
Fico became the prime minister of Slovakia again last year, after already serving two times before. People often say he and his Smer party are left-leaning populists, but some people also compare him to right-wing politicians like Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary.
Fico’s return made some people worried that he and his party, which had a history of being involved in scandals, would take Slovakia in a direction different from the rest of Western countries. He said he would be strict on migration and non-governmental organizations and protested against LGBTQ2S+ rights.
Even though some people were unsure about Fico’s leadership, both his friends and enemies criticized the attack. On Wednesday, President Putin sent a message to President Caputova, saying he supports her and hopes the prime minister gets better soon.
“This terrible crime cannot be excused,” Putin said in a statement from the Kremlin. “I think Robert Fico is brave and determined. ” I really hope that his good traits will help him get through this tough situation.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also criticized the attack on the leader of a nearby country.
“He said we should do everything we can to stop violence from becoming normal in any country or situation. “