Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, has undergone hours of surgery after being shot in an assassination attempt that prompted warnings across Europe of rising political violence.
Late on Wednesday the deputy prime minister, Tomáš Taraba, told the BBC he believed the operation had gone well. “I guess in the end he will survive,” Taraba said, adding: “He’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”
Video captured on Wednesday appeared to show the moment five shots were fired at Fico, 59, as he shook hands with a small group of supporters in the town of Handlová, about 90 miles (150km) north-east of the capital.
In the hours after the attack, Slovakia’s defence minister, Robert Kaliňák, said Fico was in an “extraordinarily serious” condition and that medical workers in the city of Banská Bystrica were “fighting for the life” of Fico, who suffered “serious polytrauma after several shots”. The prime minister was still being operated on after three and a half hours, he added.
The interior minister, Matúš Šutaj Eštok, told reporters: “We suspect the attacker had political motivation.”
A suspect was in custody, Zuzana Čaputová, the country’s president said in a televised statement.
Local reports later identified the alleged gunman as Juraj C, a 71-year-old writer and poet from Levice, south-central Slovakia, who had spoken on YouTube of his desire to form a political movement.
The son of the alleged shooter told the news outlet Aktuality.sk that his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.
A video posted online appeared to show the alleged shooter in detention saying that he did not agree with the government’s policies, particularly what he described as the “liquidation” of the media.
Fico, a veteran populist politician, returned to power in Slovakia after elections last year, his success fuelled in part by promises to halt military aid to Ukraine, criticisms of sanctions targeting Russia, and campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights.
The first months of his return have proved tense and polarising, with thousands repeatedly taking to streets across the country to protest against government plans, including a media overhaul that critics have warned will imperil freedom of the press.
The shooting comes three weeks before European parliament elections, with polls suggesting that populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc will make gains.
European Commission sources said the attack risked stoking further violence across the political landscape.
In a statement, the liberal political group Renew said it was “increasingly alarmed by the rising polarisation within our political sphere fuelled by extremist ideologies, both left and rightwing”.
“This climate of heightened division is laying the groundwork for an environment where acts of violence are more likely to occur, and also wrongly justified by those who seek to disrupt and dominate rather than engage and debate,” it added.
The warning was echoed in Germany, where three elected officials were recently assaulted in less than a week. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he had been left reeling by Fico’s shooting. “News of the cowardly assassination attempt on Slovakian prime minister Fico shocks me deeply,” he wrote on X. “Violence must have no place in European politics.”
Reaction from some within Fico’s party in Slovakia, however, hinted that the incident could exacerbate the country’s already febrile political climate.
Ľuboš Blaha, a lawmaker with Fico’s party, took aim at critics, linking them to the attack.
“You, the liberal media, and progressive politicians are to blame. Robert Fico is fighting for his life because of your hatred,” said Blaha.
Speaking to reporters, Šutaj Eštok called on politicians and others to stop “spreading hate” on social media. “What has started now was sown by many of you, by your hate,” he said. The minister of defence, Kaliňák, described the shooting as a clear “political assault”.
Others sought to strike a more moderate tone. Čaputová, the outgoing president and political rival of Fico, described the violence as “unacceptable” in a televised statement. “The hateful rhetoric we’ve been witnessing in society leads to hateful actions,” she added. “Please, let’s stop it.”
Peter Pellegrini, Slovakia’s president-elect and an ally of Fico, described the incident as an “unprecedented threat” to Slovakian democracy.
“If we express other political opinions with pistols in squares, and not in polling stations, we are jeopardising everything that we have built together over 31 years of Slovakian sovereignty,” he said.
A veteran of Slovakian politics, Fico had begun to embrace more extreme positions in recent years, from strident criticism of western allies to threats to veto any future Nato membership invitation for Ukraine.
As news of the shooting broke, Slovakia’s main opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, said they had cancelled a protest over the government’s controversial media reform plans.
The Progressive Slovakia leader, Michal Šimečka, said on social media that he was “shocked and appalled” by the shooting. “We unequivocally and strongly condemn any violence,” he said. “At the same time, we call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps that could contribute to further increasing the tension.”
Condemnations of the attack were swift to pour in from across Europe and beyond. Among the first to comment was Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister, who described it as “shocking”. “We must not tolerate violence, it must have no place in society,” he said.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said he was “shocked to hear this awful news”, while Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the attack on Fico as “appalling”. The US president, Joe Biden, said he was alarmed. “We condemn this horrific act of violence,” he said.
Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister and a close ally of Fico, said he was “deeply shocked by the heinous attack”. “We pray for his health and quick recovery! God bless him and his country!” he posted on X.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, described it as a “vile attack”.
“Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good,” she said. “My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.”
In recent years several incidents involving serious violence in Slovakia have made global headlines.
In 2022, two people were killed and another wounded in a shooting outside an LGBT venue in Bratislava.
In 2018, tens of thousands of Slovakians rallied to demand Fico’s resignation after the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, were shot dead in their home. At the time police said Kuciak’s death was “most likely” related to an investigation of his into alleged ties between Slovakia’s top politicians and the Italian mafia.
Additional reporting by Lisa O’Carroll in Brussels and Sara Cincurova in Bratislava. Agencies also contributed to this report
