Robert Fico shot updates: Slovakia PM critically wounded by gunman

Thank you for joining us for real-time updates on the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

For a detailed account of the shooting, read our story here.

And check out all the global reactions here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the latest events:

• Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times by a gunman as he went to greet the public outside following a political meeting in the town of Handlova.
• Fico, a populist politician, is not facing a life-threatening situation now after hours of surgery, the deputy prime minister says.
• A suspect detained for allegedly shooting Fico is a 71-year-old writer and poet from the centre of the European nation in the town of Levice.
• The September 2023 elections in Slovakia, which brought Fico and his allies to power, have laid bare deep social divisions in the country.
• Despite Slovakia being a member of NATO and the European Union, Fico has grown increasingly critical of Western support for Ukraine in its war with invading Russian forces.

A suspect detained for allegedly shooting Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico is a writer from the centre of the European nation, the interior minister said after local media identified the man.

“I think I can confirm this, yes,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters when asked about reports identifying the man detained at the scene of the shooting in the town of Handlova.

A grey-haired suspect was seen being handcuffed on the ground just after Fico was shot several times after a government meeting in Handlova. Officials say Fico, a populist prime minister, is fighting for his life late Wednesday.

Media reports said the suspect was a founder of the DUHA (Rainbow) Literary Club and was from the town of Levice.

World leaders have condemned the attack on Fico, who is fighting for his life after being shot.

The 59-year-old leader was shot in the abdomen in the central town of Handlova. Police sealed off the scene, and a suspect was detained. A motive for the assassination attempt has yet to be determined.

Read the global reaction here.

The September elections in Slovakia, which brought Fico and his allies to power, have laid bare deep social divisions in the country.

Gabor Czimer, a political journalist at the Slovakian news outlet Ujszo.com, said the results showed “Slovak society was strongly split into two camps” – one that is friendly towards Russia and another that is pushing for stronger connections with the EU and the West.

“At the same time, I couldn’t imagine that it would lead to physical violence,” Czimer said.

Despite Slovakia being a member of NATO and the EU, Fico has grown increasingly critical of Western support for Ukraine in its war with invading Russian forces, and expressed opposition to allowing Kyiv to join NATO in the future.

Before his election in 2023, he promised to bring an end to Slovakia providing Ukraine with military support as it battled Russia’s full-scale invasion. He also has argued that NATO and the United States provoked Moscow into war.

After his election victory, the new government immediately halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Thousands of people repeatedly took to the streets across Slovakia to rally against Fico’s pro-Russian and other policies – including plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anticorruption prosecutor and to take control of public media.

Prime Minister Fico’s close ally Lubos Blaha, deputy parliament speaker and deputy chairman of the prime minister’s SMER-SSD party, blamed what he called the “liberal media” and the opposition for creating an atmosphere that led to the shooting.

“For SMER-SSD, I want to sharply condemn what happened today in Handlova and at the same time express heavy disgust over what you have committed here in the past years,” Blaha said. “You, liberal media and political opposition. What hatred you spread against Robert Fico.”

Slovakia’s biggest opposition party Progressive Slovakia called off a planned protest against government public broadcaster reforms set for Wednesday evening.

“We call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps that could contribute to an escalation of tension,” said Michal Simecka, leader of Progressive Slovakia, a liberal pro-Western party.

Fico previously served twice as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018. His third term in 2023 made him the longest-serving head of government in the history of Slovakia, a European Union and NATO member.

Fico, 59, was born in 1964 in what was then Czechoslovakia. A member of the Communist Party before the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, he took a law degree in 1986 and was first elected to Slovakia’s parliament in 1992 as a member of the Party of the Democratic Left.

He served for several years in the 1990s as a governmental agent representing the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission of Human Rights.

In 1999, he became chairman of the Smer (Direction) party, of which he has been a pivotal figure ever since.

A witness just metres away from the shooting says it sounded like firecrackers going off when the attack on Fico occurred.

“I saw blood on his head, and then he fell next to the barrier. I think this is a nightmare that I will not wake up from. This should not happen in Slovakia,” said Lubica Valkova, visibly shaken from the assassination attempt.

Shots were fired as Fico exited a building to shake hands with a crowd of people who had been waiting to greet him. Police then wrestled the gunman to the ground.

Slovak news media report the shooter – an unnamed 71-year-old man – was a former security guard at a shopping mall, an author of three collections of poetry, and a member of the Slovak Society of Writers.

Atkuality.sk cited his son as saying his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.

“I have absolutely no idea what my father intended, what he planned, what happened,” news outlet Aktuality.sk quoted the shooter’s son as saying.

Fico’s return to power in 2023 caused concern among his critics that he and his Smer (Direction) party, which had long been tainted by scandal, would lead Slovakia away from its pro-Western course.

He promised to pursue a “sovereign” foreign policy, promised a tough stance against migration and nongovernmental organisations, and campaigned against LGBTQ rights.

He earned a reputation for his tirades against journalists and faced criminal charges in 2022 for allegedly creating a criminal group and misusing power.

In 2018, he and his government stepped down after investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was murdered along with his fiancee. Kuciak had been reporting on tax-related crimes and had implicated high-level politicians.

The leaders of Hungary, Serbia, and Ukraine responded to the attack on Robert Fico.

“I was deeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend, Prime Minister Robert Fico. We pray for his health and quick recovery! God bless him and his country,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “We strongly condemn this act of violence against our neighbouring partner state’s head of government. Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form, or sphere.”

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic also condemned the assassination attempt. “Shots fired at Robert are shots at freedom and democracy … There can be no room for violence in politics.”

The pro-Russian leader, 59, is reportedly fighting for his life after being hit in the stomach.

As we await more information on the circumstances surrounding the attack against Prime Minister Fico, here is a People & Power episode examining his return to power in 2023.

Daniel Vrazda, a journalist with the Dennik N newspaper who was covering the political event where the prime minister was wounded, said he heard four shots and saw Fico on the ground – and then being carried away.

Video shows two guards carrying Fico by his arms while other guards open the doors to a black Mercedes limousine that sped away. Security personnel apprehended a man in jeans who was by then lying on the ground in handcuffs.

Fico was transported by helicopter to hospital in Banska Bystrica. Slovak public television RTVS showed images of a stretcher surrounded by security guards being wheeled into a hospital.