Slovakia PM Robert Fico is out of danger

• Surgeons operated on Fico, 59, after he was shot on Wednesday.
• The alleged assailant, Juraj Cintula, is a poet involved in various political organizations.
• Kalinak stated that Fico’s condition is stable with a positive prognosis.

Four days after an assassination attempt left Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico shot and in critical condition, his deputy announced that his life was no longer in danger. The country’s deputy PM, Robert Kalinak, informed reporters that while Fico’s condition still necessitates intensive care, “the worst we feared, at least for now, has passed.”

Since Wednesday, Mr. Fico, 59, has undergone hours of surgery after being shot. Authorities have placed a man charged with his attempted murder in custody until his trial.

Although not formally named, Slovak reports widely identify the alleged assailant as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula from the town of Levice.

Local media have portrayed him as a poet who has actively participated in political organizations with various ideologies.

In a previous update, Mr. Kalinak stated that the prime minister had sustained four gunshot wounds: two light, one medium, and one serious.

“We can consider his condition stable with a positive prognosis,” he said outside the hospital where Mr Fico is being treated in the city of Banska Bystrica, “We all feel a bit more relaxed now.”

He added that Mr. Fico would stay in Banska Bystrica for the moment, with a transfer not possible shortly due to his condition.

An assailant shot the prime minister at close range while he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the small town of Handlova.

Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok stated that if one of the shots “had gone just a few centimeters higher, it would have hit the prime minister’s liver”.

The attack has deeply shocked Slovakia. On Thursday, Slovakia’s outgoing President Zuzana Caputova appealed for calm and invited all party leaders to a meeting to discuss political tension.

Mr. Fico returned to power in Slovakia after elections last September, leading a populist-nationalist coalition.

Since at least 2018, when a journalist investigating high-level corruption claims was murdered, divisions in the country have escalated, leading to a particularly hostile political climate.

Mr. Fico was forced to step down amid massive protests at that time.

His re-election marked a significant comeback achieved on a platform that included promises to end military aid to Kyiv, veto Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, and other rhetoric more reminiscent of Moscow than Brussels.

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