Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is “stable” after emergency surgery following the attack, but his health remains “very serious”. The Slovak government announced this on Thursday. The cabinet will meet at 11 a.m.
Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliňák and representatives of the Roosevelt Hospital in Banská Bystrica informed about the Prime Minister’s condition on Thursday. The hospital’s director, Miriam Lapuníková, explained that Fico was operated on by two surgical teams for five hours. “The patient had multiple gunshot wounds.”
“Situation still very serious”
Kaliňák thanked all the doctors in the hospital. “The situation remains very serious, precisely because of the complexity of the injuries, but we all want to believe that we will be able to keep the situation under control,” added the politician from Fico’s Smer party. The government has scheduled a special meeting for 11 a.m. At the same time, the National Security Council should also discuss the situation. In addition to the head of government, the National Security Council consists of the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, as well as other ministers from all three coalition parties.
Another Fico agent, Tomáš Taraba, had already declared that Fico was out of danger that evening. “As far as I know the operation went well – and I think he will survive in the end,” right-wing populist Environment Minister Taraba told the BBC late in the evening. News service Aktuiteit.sk quoted a person familiar with the case as saying Fico was in stable condition after the operation. According to media reports, Fico has regained consciousness.
Hit hard
Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok previously spoke of a life-threatening situation. According to Eštok, the attacker fired five shots. One bullet passed through Fico’s stomach and a second hit a joint, Taraba said. A political motive is suspected. The perpetrator was overpowered immediately after the shots. According to previous reports, Fico was hit in the abdomen during the attack in Handlová.
According to a spokeswoman for a hospital in the city, Fico responded well when he was admitted. According to the government office, he was flown to Banská Bystrica for treatment because the transport to Bratislava would have taken too long given the acute situation.
Confirmed information about the perpetrator and motive was initially unavailable. According to “Aktuality.sk”, the suspected perpetrator is a 71-year-old man with a firearms permit. The agency quoted the man’s son as saying he had no idea of his father’s plans or what had happened. His father did not vote for Fico and that was all he could say about it.
Murderer arrested
An employee of the Reuters news agency reported that he heard several shots and saw a man being arrested by police. The arrested man was taken away in a car by security forces. Handlová is located about 190 kilometers northeast of Bratislava. The Prime Minister was on a tour of the country’s regions.
The attack shocked Slovakia and sparked international condemnation. Heads of state and government of several countries condemned the act.
Source: Krone
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