Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is hovering between life and demise following gunshots fired at him by a 71-year-old, additionally hitting him within the stomach whereas he was in a city in central Slovakia. The assault on the populist and pro-Russian prime minister who has been again in workplace since final October has raised a wave of indignation and shock at a global degree, from President Joe Biden to Russian President Vladimir Putin, passing by means of the EU leaders who converse of “assault on democracy”. According to preliminary reconstructions, Fico was hit by three of the 4 pictures fired by the attacker: two within the arm and one within the stomach. “I did it as a result of I disagree with the federal government’s insurance policies.” These can be the primary phrases of Juraj Cintula, the 71-year-old who shot, in the course of the interrogation of which the native media re-released some photographs.
The prime minister wounded within the stomach
The assault befell in entrance of a cultural heart in Handlova, a city about 200 km drive east of the capital Bratislava, the place a authorities assembly had simply been held. Fico was urgently transported by helicopter to the ‘Roosevelt’ hospital in Banska Bystrica, about 35 km because the crow flies from Handlova, the place he was initially admitted to a vascular surgical procedure unit. A transport to Bratislava was deemed too lengthy given the severity of his situation: he’s “between life and demise”, the Slovak authorities reported in a be aware within the early afternoon, defining the assault as “an assassination try”. . “The subsequent few hours will determine,” warns a textual content revealed on his Facebook web page.
I movies
The attacker, who was hiding among the many crowd gathered in entrance of the assembly constructing, shouted ‘Robo, come right here!’ earlier than firing. The two most relaunched movies on the web present the primary seconds after the pictures. In one we see two safety males bodily carrying Fico right into a black Audi, with the prime minister dragging his ft – evidently because of his abdomen wound. In one other video, two policemen and two individuals in plain garments handcuff somebody mendacity on the bottom: the attacker in opposition to whom prison proceedings have been initiated for tried homicide with the irritating circumstance of premeditation. Slovak media reviews that the aged man, Juraj Cintula, fired a legally owned gun.
The bomber
The man had labored in 2016 “for a personal safety service”, revealed “a number of collections of poems” in addition to a novel and likewise collected signatures to discovered a “motion in opposition to violence”. The son admitted that Cintula “didn’t vote” for Fico, however can not clarify his mother or father’s gesture.
Fico’s politics
Four occasions prime minister (he had already led executives in 2006-10 and 2012-18), Fico is a veteran of Slovak politics who, after profitable the elections final September, is shifting the orientation of Bratislava’s international coverage in the direction of Russia, aligning to the Hungarian Viktor Orban: amongst different issues he questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine and requested for a compromise with Moscow with a purpose to finish the Russian battle of aggression. Since taking workplace, and holding his promise to not provide Kiev with “even a single bullet”, he has stopped sending weapons paid for with public funds to the Ukrainians. Tough on migrants and LGBT minorities, Fico has provoked mass protests with controversial reforms, together with a media regulation accused of compromising the impartiality of public tv and radio.
The reactions
Due to the assault, two Slovak opposition events canceled a protest known as for right now in protection of the independence of public TV and radio. “We condemn this horrible act of violence,” Biden declared, for as soon as agreeing with Putin who spoke of a “hateful crime” in opposition to a “brave man”. The rotating presidency of the EU entrusted to Belgium outlined the assault as “an assault on democracy”, an idea additionally utilized by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated she realized «with profound dismay the information of the cowardly assault on Prime Minister Robert Fico. All my ideas are with him, his household and the pleasant Slovak individuals. Also on behalf of the Italian Government – added Meloni – I want to specific the strongest condemnation of any type of violence and assault on the cardinal rules of democracy and freedom”.
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