Slovak PM 'able to speak' after shooting
Published: 06:05 PM,May 16,2024 | EDITED : 10:05 PM,May 16,2024
President-elect Peter Pellegrini addresses the media at FD Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica on Thursday. - Reuters
BANSKA BYSTRICA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is able to speak on Thursday but is still in a 'difficult condition' a day after his shooting, officials said, as police charged a suspect in the attack they said was politically motivated.
President-elect Peter Pellegrini briefed journalists a day after the shooting, which has prompted concern of further violence in the politically polarised nation just weeks before European parliament elections.
'He is able to speak but only a few sentences and then he is really, really tired... The situation is very critical,' Pellegrini said outside the hospital in the central town of Banska Bystrica.
'The doctors asked me to make a really very short visit...,' he stressed. 'I told him that we stand behind him.'
But he added that 'very difficult hours and days' lay ahead for Fico.
Wednesday's shooting has sparked fears for the future in the already deeply polarised nation, as officials drew a link between the political situation and the suspect's motives.
Police charged the suspect in his shooting with attempted murder on Thursday.
And Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said of the suspect: 'This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential elections since he was dissatisfied with its outcome.'
President-elect Pellegrini, who won last month's vote, is a political ally of Fico.
Pellegrini called for calm and urged political parties to halt campaigning for June's EU parliament election.
The biggest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, announced that it had already done so, and several other parties followed suit.
Slovakia's political scene has been divided for years between pro-Europeans and nationalist-leaning camps.
Disinformation and verbal attacks on social media featured heavily during the latest election campaign.
Pellegrini, who takes office in June, said in a joint statement with outgoing President Zuzana Caputova that Slovakia should avoid 'further confrontation'.
The two politicians represent rival political camps but Caputova said they wanted 'to send a signal of understanding' as she urged an end to 'the vicious circle of hatred'.
Surgeons spent hours in the operating theatre, battling to save the 59-year-old leader's life after Wednesday's shooting, which happened as Fico was speaking to members of the public after a meeting.
Deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak said doctors had stabilised Fico's condition but said it 'is still very serious as the injuries are complicated'.
Footage just after the shooting showed security agents grabbing a wounded Fico from the ground and bundling him into a car, while other officers handcuffed a man on the pavement. SEE ALSO P5
President-elect Peter Pellegrini briefed journalists a day after the shooting, which has prompted concern of further violence in the politically polarised nation just weeks before European parliament elections.
'He is able to speak but only a few sentences and then he is really, really tired... The situation is very critical,' Pellegrini said outside the hospital in the central town of Banska Bystrica.
'The doctors asked me to make a really very short visit...,' he stressed. 'I told him that we stand behind him.'
But he added that 'very difficult hours and days' lay ahead for Fico.
Wednesday's shooting has sparked fears for the future in the already deeply polarised nation, as officials drew a link between the political situation and the suspect's motives.
Police charged the suspect in his shooting with attempted murder on Thursday.
And Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said of the suspect: 'This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential elections since he was dissatisfied with its outcome.'
President-elect Pellegrini, who won last month's vote, is a political ally of Fico.
Pellegrini called for calm and urged political parties to halt campaigning for June's EU parliament election.
The biggest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, announced that it had already done so, and several other parties followed suit.
Slovakia's political scene has been divided for years between pro-Europeans and nationalist-leaning camps.
Disinformation and verbal attacks on social media featured heavily during the latest election campaign.
Pellegrini, who takes office in June, said in a joint statement with outgoing President Zuzana Caputova that Slovakia should avoid 'further confrontation'.
The two politicians represent rival political camps but Caputova said they wanted 'to send a signal of understanding' as she urged an end to 'the vicious circle of hatred'.
Surgeons spent hours in the operating theatre, battling to save the 59-year-old leader's life after Wednesday's shooting, which happened as Fico was speaking to members of the public after a meeting.
Deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak said doctors had stabilised Fico's condition but said it 'is still very serious as the injuries are complicated'.
Footage just after the shooting showed security agents grabbing a wounded Fico from the ground and bundling him into a car, while other officers handcuffed a man on the pavement. SEE ALSO P5