- Following a shooting during a “attempted assassination,” Robert Fico, the populist prime minister of Slovakia, was listed as critically ill on Wednesday, according to his office. Fico was shot many times and is in a life-threatening condition, according to an update on his Facebook page.
- It said that he was being taken to a hospital in the city of Banská Bystrica rather than in the capital, Bratislava, because “it would take too long considering the urgency of the matter.”
The country’s president confirmed the attack shortly after the news broke.
“Utterly shocked by today’s brutal and reckless attack on #Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which I condemn in strongest possible terms,” Zuzana Čaputová said in a message on X. “I wish him lot of strength in this critical moment and early recovery. My thoughts are also with his family and close ones,” she added.
- The town of Handlova, which is located roughly 110 miles northeast of the capital Bratislava, was the scene of multiple gunshots, according to a TASR reporter. According to the news agency, Fico was extending greetings to the public following a meeting of the government.
- In a post on X, President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, vehemently denounced the attack. She declared, “Such violent acts undermine democracy, our most precious common good, and have no place in our society.”
