Slovak prime minister still in serious condition after operation, say officials

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has undergone another operation two days after being shot multiple times and remains in serious condition, officials said on Friday.

Mr Fico, 59, was attacked as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the former coal mining town of Handlova. A suspected assailant has been arrested.

Miriam Lapunikova, director of the University FD Roosevelt hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Mr Fico was taken by helicopter after he was shot, said Mr Fico underwent a CT scan and is currently awake and stable in an intensive care unit. She described his condition as “very serious”.

She said the surgery removed dead tissue that had remained inside Mr Fico’s body.

“I think it will take several more days until we will definitely know the direction of the further development,” Robert Kaliniak, the defence minister and deputy prime minister, told reporters at the hospital.

Mr Kaliniak stressed that the government continues to work.

“The ministries are working on all their duties, nothing is frozen or halted, the country goes on,” he told reporters. “The state is stable and today the patient is stable as well.”

Mr Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond. His return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American platform led to worries among fellow European Union and Nato members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course, particularly on Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, the man charged with attempting to assassinate Mr Fico was escorted by police to his home. Local media reported that it was part of a search for evidence.

Markiza, a Slovak television station, showed footage of the suspect being taken to his home in the town of Levice on Friday morning, and reported that police had seized a computer and some documents. Police did not comment.

Prosecutors have told police not to publicly identify the suspect or release other details about the case. The suspect’s detention will be reviewed at a hearing on Saturday at Slovakia’s Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok, outside the capital Bratislava.

Unconfirmed media reports suggested he was a 71-year-old retiree who was known as an amateur poet, and may have previously worked as a security guard at a shopping centre in the country’s southwest.

Government authorities on Thursday gave details that matched that description. They said the suspect did not belong to any political groups, though the attack itself was politically motivated.

Slovakia’s presidential office said on Friday that it was working to organise a meeting of leaders of all parliamentary parties for Tuesday.

Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova announced the plan together with President-elect Peter Pellegrini, who succeeds her in mid June, in an attempt to reduce social tensions in the country.

At the start of Russia’s invasion, Slovakia was one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters, but Mr Fico halted arms deliveries to Ukraine when he returned to power, his fourth time serving as prime minister.

Mr Fico’s government has also made efforts to overhaul public broadcasting — a move critics said would give the government full control of public television and radio.

That, coupled with his plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor, have led opponents to worry that Mr Fico will lead Slovakia down a more autocratic path.

Thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital and around the country of 5.4 million to protest against his policies.

Mr Fico said last month on Facebook that he believed rising tensions in the country could lead to the murder of politicians, and he blamed the media for fuelling tensions.

Before Mr Fico returned to power last year, many of his political and business associates were the focus of police investigations, and dozens have been charged.

His plan to overhaul of the penal system would eliminate the office of the special prosecutor that deals with organised crime, corruption and extremism.