![Slovak PM's life no longer in danger after shooting](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/images/UrduPoint-English-22.png)
Slovak PM's Life No Longer In Danger After Shooting
Muhammad Irfan Published May 19, 2024 | 10:00 PM
![Slovak PM's life no longer in danger after shooting](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/images/UrduPoint-English-22.png)
Bratislava, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th May, 2024) Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's life was no longer in danger following an assassination attempt, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak said on Sunday.
The suspected gunman appeared in court on Saturday after Fico was shot four times last Wednesday, leaving him fighting for his life at one stage.
"He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care," Kalinak, Fico's closest political ally, told reporters.
The Slovak premier was shot as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova. He underwent a five-hour operation on Wednesday and another on Friday at a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica.
"We can consider his condition stable with a positive prognosis," Kalinak said outside the hospital, adding that "we all feel a bit more relaxed now."
Kalinak added that Fico would stay at Banska Bystrica for the moment.
The suspected gunman, identified by Slovak media as 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintula, has been charged with premeditated attempted murder and was held in custody following a hearing on Saturday.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said that if one of the shots "went just a few centimetres higher, it would have hit the prime minister's liver".
Sutaj Estok added on Sunday that police were looking into the possibility that the gunman may not have acted alone.
"One version is that the culprit was part of a group of people who encouraged each other to commit the crime," he said, adding the gunman may also have disclosed his intentions to someone.
Citing intelligence reports, Sutaj Estok said that someone had erased the gunman's history and communication on Facebook while he was detained.
- Deep divisions -
The attempted assassination has highlighted acute political divisions in the country where 59-year-old Fico took office in October after his centrist populist Smer party won a general election.
He is serving his fourth term as prime minister after campaigning on proposals for peace between Russia and Slovakia's neighbour Ukraine, and to halt military aid to Kyiv, which his government has done.
Fico leads a coalition comprising his Smer party, the centrist HLAS and the small nationalist SNS party.
Kalinak said the government would carry on without Fico "according to the programme he has outlined".
Slovakia was already sharply divided over politics since the 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.
Kuciak pointed at links between Italian mafia and Fico's then government, and his murder sparked nationwide protests that resulted in Fico's resignation in 2018.
The divisions deepened further with the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Following the attack on Fico, outgoing President Zuzana Caputova and her successor Peter Pellegrini, a Fico ally who takes over in June, tried to quell the tensions.
Following a proposal by Caputova and Pellegrini, several parties have suspended campaigning for European Parliament elections scheduled for June.
But some politicians have been quick to blame the Fico attack on their opponents or media.
SNS chairman Andrej Danko blamed the media just after the shooting, and Kalinak took on the opposition and media in an emotional speech on the Smer website on Friday.
Pellegrini on Sunday said that a meeting of parliamentary party leaders he was planning to host on Tuesday to help ease tensions would probably not take place.
"The past few days and some press conferences have shown us that some politicians are simply not capable of fundamental self-reflection even after such a huge tragedy," said Pellegrini.
"It has turned out that the time is not ripe for a round table with the representatives of all parliamentary parties yet," he added.
In a debate on the TA3 news channel, Danko said it was "false to say that a meeting on Tuesday would reconcile society".
Police have meanwhile charged several people who expressed approval for the attack on Fico on social media.
Sutaj Estok said police were monitoring places with increased movement of people and guarding top politicians and those facing death threats, newspaper publishers and tv studios as well as hospitals.
frj/mmp/bc
Meta
Related Topics
Recent Stories
![Cricket: England v West Indies 3rd Test scoreboard](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019914.jpg)
Cricket: England v West Indies 3rd Test scoreboard
![Finance minister briefs Chinese officials on refor ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019922.jpg)
Finance minister briefs Chinese officials on reform agenda, engagement with IMF
![Finland says Russian vessel violated its territori ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019912.jpg)
Finland says Russian vessel violated its territorial waters
![Olympic opening ceremony under way on River Seine](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019266.jpg)
Olympic opening ceremony under way on River Seine
![West Indies' treble strike rocks England in third ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019264.jpg)
West Indies' treble strike rocks England in third Test
![Ukraine court orders detention of suspect in murde ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019262.jpg)
Ukraine court orders detention of suspect in murder of nationalist ex-MP
![Long queues, ticketing problems ahead of Paris ope ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019015.jpg)
Long queues, ticketing problems ahead of Paris opening ceremony
![Rana Sanaullah Khan joins Paris 2024 Olympics inau ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019638.jpg)
Rana Sanaullah Khan joins Paris 2024 Olympics inauguration reception
![Glowing tributes mark 69th birthday of President Z ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019637.jpg)
Glowing tributes mark 69th birthday of President Zardari at Governor's House
![Players unaware of spying scandal as Canada Olympi ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019635.jpg)
Players unaware of spying scandal as Canada Olympic coach sent home: official
![Naqvi hails Pak women cricketers for going down fi ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019013.jpg)
Naqvi hails Pak women cricketers for going down fighting against SL
!['Sabotage' on French rail network before Olympics: ..](https://photo-cdn.urdupoint.com/media/2024/07/_1/235x155/pic_1722019634.jpg)
'Sabotage' on French rail network before Olympics: What we know
More Stories From World
-
Biden talks Gaza ceasefire efforts with king of Jordan
5 hours ago -
Sinaloa Cartel co-founder pleads not guilty after stunning US capture
5 hours ago -
Panama says Venezuela blocked ex-presidents going to observe polls
5 hours ago -
Ethiopia mourns victims of landslide tragedy
5 hours ago -
Khan Yunis fighting displaces 180,000 Gazans in four days: UN
5 hours ago -
Trump slams rivals as he meets Netanyahu in Florida
5 hours ago
-
Obama & his wife, Michelle, officially endorse US VP Kamala Harris for president
5 hours ago -
Rain, cooling slow huge blaze in Canada's Jasper park
5 hours ago -
Airbus and Boeing supremacy secure despite turbulence
5 hours ago -
S.African police detain 95 Libyans at suspected military camp
6 hours ago -
'Slapping therapist' guilty over UK diabetic woman's death
6 hours ago -
Panama says Venezuela blocked flight of ex-presidents going to observe polls
6 hours ago