Photo: Ferenc Isza Agence France-Presse Slovak Health Minister Zuzana Dolinkova, right, and her Defense colleague Robert Kalinak, left, speak to the media during a news conference Saturday, May 18, 2024, in front of F.D. Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is hospitalized.
France Media Agency to Bratislava
Published yesterday at 11:50 a.m. Updated yesterday at 12:18 p.m.
- Europe
The prognosis regarding the state of health of the head of the Slovak government Robert Fico after the assassination attempt is “positive”, the Slovak Minister of Health announced on Saturday, while the suspect was placed in pre-trial detention.
Mr. Fico has been hospitalized since Wednesday, when a sniper shot him four times, including in the abdomen.
He underwent a five-hour operation on Wednesday and another for two hours on Friday, both at a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia.
“Yesterday's surgical intervention, which lasted two hours, contributed to a positive prognosis for the state of health of the Prime Minister,” Minister Zuzana Dolinkova told the press.
“The Prime Minister’s health is stable, but it remains serious,” she added.
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“If the shot had gone a few centimeters higher, it would have hit the prime minister's liver,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told the TA3 news channel.< /p>
Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak, Mr. Fico's closest political ally, said the prime minister was aware.
“I don't “I don't think he can be transported to Bratislava in the next few days, because his condition is still serious,” he told reporters.
In the morning also, the suspect of the attempted murder arrived at the criminal court in Pezinok northeast of Bratislava, which ordered him to be remanded in custody. “There are fears of a potential escape or that the criminal activity will continue,” said Katarina Kudjakova, the spokesperson for the Pezinok Special Criminal Court.
The Man , identified by Slovak media as 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintula, fired five shots at Fico on Wednesday, hitting him four times. He was charged with attempted premeditated murder.
The shooting occurred as Mr. Fico greeted supporters after a remote government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova.
Mr. Fico has been in office since his centrist populist party, Smer-SD, won legislative elections last fall.
All these lies
Mr. Fico is serving his fourth term as prime minister after campaigning on peace proposals between Russia and Ukraine, Slovakia's neighbor, and on stopping military aid to kyiv, which his government did subsequently.
The assassination attempt deeply shocked this country of 5.4 million inhabitants, a member of the European Union and the NATO, already strongly divided politically for years.
The outgoing pro-Western president, Zuzana Caputova, and her successor, Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Mr. Fico who will take office in June, called on their fellow Slovak citizens to refrain from any “confrontation” after the shooting.
They called a meeting of all parliamentary party leaders for Tuesday to show unity in the wake of the attack.
Mr. Kalinak, however, hinted on Saturday that Smer-SD would not attend the meeting.
“They invited the leaders of political parties and our (party) president is in the hands of doctors,” he said.
Mr. Kalinak added that he would call Ms. Caputova about the matter, emphasizing that Slovakia needed “reconciliation and peace.”
Some Slovak politicians have already launched accusations against their opponents, accusing them of being behind the attack.
Mr. Kalinak on Friday criticized opposition politicians and some media outlets for calling Mr. Fico a criminal, a dictator or a servant of Russian President Vladimir Putin before the attack.
“All these lies are the main reason why Robert Fico is fighting for his life today,” he said in a message posted on the Smer-SD website.