Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Slovakia Robert Kalinak, speaks during a media briefing together with hospital director Miriam Lapunikova (left), outside the F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a stable but serious condition on May 15, after being shot multiple times in an assassination attempt a day earlier,” a hospital official said.

Doctors are continuing to treat Mr. Fico in an attempt to improve his condition, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters outside the hospital in Banska Bystrica.

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The government says five shots were fired at Mr. Fico on May 15 outside a cultural centre where he was meeting with supporters.

“A suspect was in custody and an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the assassination attempt,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said on Wednesday.

Mr. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, but his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would lead his country further from the Western mainstream.

A person is detained after the shooting incident of Slovak PM Robert Fico, after a Slovak government meeting in Handlova, Slovakia, on May 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Media reports say Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital. The incident took place in the town of Handlova, some 150km northeast of the capital, according to the news television station TA3. A suspect has been detained, it said.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Lubos Blaha confirmed the incident during a session of Parliament and adjourned it until further notice, the Slovak TASR news agency said.

The incident took place in front of the local House of Culture, where Mr. Fico came to meet with supporters. Police sealed off the scene.

A reporter for the daily newspaper Dennik N daily heard shooting and then saw rescuers carrying the premier to a car.