by Gospa News International Editorial Staff
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and wounded on Wednesday, according to media reports. Multiple shots were reportedly fired at politician as he greeted the public after a government meeting.
Hungarian PM Orban unveils Background behind Fico’s Murder Attempt: “EU Transformed in a War Party”
The shooting took place in the town of Handlova, as Fico shook hands with members of the public outside government buildings, Slovakia’s TA3 News reported. Four shots rang out, the network’s sources said, with one of them striking the prime minister.
Fico collapsed and was carried to a car by his security detail, the network stated. He was taken to a nearby hospital and his condition is unclear.The suspect was restrained by police and arrested, Slovak newspaper Dennik N reported.
Fico was “wounded in the abdomen and chest,” Slovakia’s Pravda news outlet reported. Other media outlets described his condition as “serious.”
Fico was hit “multiple times” and his condition is “life-threatening,” the prime minister’s office announced on Facebook. He is currently being airlifted from Handlova to a hospital in Banska Bystrica as flying him to Bratislava would take too long, Fico’s office added. “The next few hours will decide” whether he survives, the statement concluded.
Fico is still being operated on, Labor Minister Erik Tomas told TV Markiza. The operation will take a long time as several of the prime minister’s organs were damaged, Tomas said.
President Zuzana Caputova condemned the “brutal and reckless” attack on Fico, and wished him “a lot of strength at this critical moment.”
“There is no doubt” that the attack on Fico was a politically motivated assassination attempt, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters outside the hospital in Banska Bystrica. “The inability to accept the will of some part of the public, which some group does not like, is the result that they have worked towards today,” said the minister, seemingly referring to Fico’s political opponents.
Fico took office in October 2023, after serving two stints as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He immediately halted the previous government’s policy of military aid to Ukraine and called for a negotiated settlement between Moscow and Kiev.
His neutral stance on the conflict has led to clashes with Brussels and pro-Western figures within Slovakia like Caputova.
The attempt on Fico’s life is an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy, President-elect Peter Pellegrini said in a statement. “If we express differing political views with guns in the squares, and not in the polling stations, we threaten everything that we have built together during the 31 years of Slovak sovereignty,” he wrote.
Pellegrini, an ally of Fico, defeated ex-foreign minister Ivan Korcok in a vote last month, and will replace the pro-Western Zuzana Caputova as head of state in June.
According to Aussie Cossack, Registered Russian foreign agent in Australia for Sputnik News, the man who shot Slovakian Prime Minister Fico has just been identified as 71-year-old writer Yurij Tsintulya. The man is a supporter of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia. In the last year, Tsintulya has been openly critical of PM Fico.
According to The Slovak Spectator newspaper, in Bratislava, pro-Russian Smer MP and deputy speaker of parliament Ľuboš Blaha has suspended today’s session in the parliament following the shooting in Handlová. Blaha, who chaired the session at a time of the Handlová shooting, blamed the opposition for the shooting.
“This is your fault,” he told the opposition.
A criticised bill on the public broadcaster, which would revoke the current public-service media, RTVS, and establish a new, government-friendly broadcaster, STVR, was discussed by MPs on Wednesday.
Another anti-government protest was scheduled to take place on Wednesday evening in Bratislava. Following the attempted assassination, the opposition opted to cancel the protest. In recent months, nationwide demonstrations have been held throughout the country in opposition to the government’s efforts to undermine the rule of law, cancel the public broadcaster, and target NGOs.
Fico’s coalition partner and Slovenská Národná Strana (SNS) leader Andrej Danko blamed the opposition and several media outlets (Aktuality, Denník N, Sme) for the attack. “Those who have wished for something like this, are you pleased?” Danko said, noting that he anticipated such an assault on a political figure.
The Russian Network Sputnik International reminds an important political decision against NATO will…
«Earlier, the government of Slovakia decided to focus on humanitarian aid and no longer send weapons to Ukraine. The Cabinet led by Robert Fico did not approve the proposal of the previous government, which concerned sending another package of military aid to Ukraine worth 40.3 million euros. It mainly involved ammunition. This package of military aid was supposed to be the 14th from Slovakia; since February 2022, the republic has sent weapons, ammunition, and equipment to Ukraine worth 671 million euros».
Slovakian Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok promised that the assassination attempt will be thoroughly investigated.
Source RT – former Russia Today and others
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