BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) — The Slovak interior minister said Thursday that a “lone wolf” has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico and prompted soul-searching among leaders in the deeply divided society.
Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections.
The attempted assassination has shocked the small central European nation, with many blaming the attack in part on extreme political polarization that has divided the country.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town. However, he said Thursday that the suspect charged was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political groups.”
The minister did not specify what the motivation was. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and 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 abandon his country’s pro-Western course.
This photo shows Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico being transported from a helicopter by medics to the hospital in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia where he is to be treated after he had been shot “multiple times” on May 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Photo by AFP via Getty Images
The attempt on Fico’s life came at a time of high division in Slovakia, as thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital and around the country to protest his policies. It also comes just ahead of June elections for the European Parliament.
Slovakia’s outgoing and next presidents — political rivals — appeared together in an appeal for Slovaks to overcome their increasingly tense political differences for the good of the country.
Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, an opponent of Fico, said Thursday that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm, saying the attack was a reflection of an increasingly polarized society.
“Let us step out of the vicious circle of hatred and mutual accusations,” Caputova said at a news conference in the capital Bratislava. “What happened yesterday was an individual act. But the tense atmosphere of hatred was our collective work.”
This photo shows security personnel apprehending a suspected gunman after Slovakia’s Prime Minister was shot in Handlova, Slovakia on May 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Photo by AFP via Getty Images
President-Elect Peter Pellegrini called on political parties to suspend or scale back their campaigns for European elections, which will be held June 6-9, to prevent “stand-offs and mutual accusations between politicians.”
“If there is anything that the people of Slovakia urgently need today,