Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot in the town of Handlova after a government meeting this afternoon. Gunshots were fired outside the local cultural centre where the government had been conducting regional talks. The prime minister immediately fell on the ground after suffering multiple wounds to the chest and abdomen.
The police detained the assailant, cordoned off the area and evacuated the cultural centre. The special police unit protecting distinguished persons took care of the safety of the other government members present. According to the Plus 7 dní report[i], not long before the gunshots, a voice had shouted, ‘Robo, come here!’. It looked like someone just wanted to shake the PM’s hand, but then shots rang out. Bodyguards immediately dragged Fico to his vehicle and rushed him to the hospital. Then, he was air-transported to Banská Bystrica, where he is undergoing a life-saving surgery.
According to Denník N[ii], the assailant is a 71-year-old man from Levice who kept a gun legally.
Due to the assassination attempt, the meeting of the National Council of the Slovak Republic has been suspended indefinitely.
Robert Fico has been Slovakia’s prime minister since October 2023, having previously held the position three times. During his first term as PM between 2006 and 2010, he was considered a distinctly pro-European politician; the country joined the Eurozone under his leadership in 2009.
However, he also pursued an anti-Hungarian policy in numerous cases during these years.The law prohibiting the acquisition of dual citizenship was introduced before the end of his first term. But his views changed over time, and in 2015, in the company of the other V4 prime ministers, he strongly opposed the introduction of migrant quotas. The same year, as prime minister, he sent Slovak police forces to help defend Hungary’s southern border.[iii] In 2018, following the assassination of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, due to social pressure, Fico resigned.
While his relationship with Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán was cold in the early 2010s, the connection between the two gradually improved, and nowadays
the Slovak and the Hungarian premiers can be said to be not merely political allies but also friends.
Not long after the assassination attempt, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán tweeted on X the following: ‘I was deeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend, Prime Minister Robert Fico. We pray for his health and quick recovery! God bless him and his country!’[iv] During his last visit to Budapest, Fico publicly praised Hungary’s sovereigntist policy and promised that he would never agree to the suspension of the country’s right to vote in the European Council. As the leader of the Slovakian opposition between 2020 and 2023, Fico has numerously blamed the reigning Slovak government for pushing the Visegrád cooperation into the background to score political points with Brussels. Upon his return in 2023, he clearly expressed that he intends to pursue a sovereigntist policy, part of which is the revival of the Visegrád Cooperation and the pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.
In connection with the assassination attempt, almost all Slovak political figures spoke out. The outgoing president of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová, made the following statement, also on X: ‘Utterly shocked by today’s brutal attack on #Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms. I wish him a lot of strength in this critical moment and an early recovery. My thoughts are also with his family and close ones.’[v] According to President-elect Peter Pellegrini, “
‘An assassination attempt on one of the highest constitutional officials is an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy. If we express different political opinions with guns in the squares, and not in polling stations, we endanger everything we have built together in 31 years of Slovak sovereignty.’[vi]
[i] ‘ATENTÁT na premiére: Roberta Fica postrelili v Handlovej! Údajne padli štyri rany’, Plus 7 dní (15.05.2024), https://plus7dni.pluska.sk/domov/obrovsky-sok-premiera-roberta-fica-mali-postrelit-handlovej-udajne-padlo-pat-ran/, accessed 15.05.2024.
[ii] ‘Fica postrelili, podľa úradu vlády je v ohrození života’, Denník N (15.05.2024), https://dennikn.sk/minuta/live/20748/premiera-fica-v-handlovej-postrelili/, accessed 15.05.2024.
[iii] ‘Már szlovák rendőrök is védik a magyar határt’, Index (20.10.2015), https://index.hu/belfold/2015/10/20/mar_szlovak_rendorok_is_vedik_a_magyar_hatart/, accessed, 15.05.2024.
[iv] Official X account of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán (15.05.2024), https://twitter.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1790740770418208860?t=DyDN_9WDiHuVijYh9xIpBg&s=07/, accessed 15.05.2024.
[v] Official X account of the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová (15.05.2024), https://twitter.com/ZuzanaCaputova/status/1790742825732092015/, accessed, 15.05.2024.
[vi] Official X account of the President-elect of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini (15.05.2024), https://twitter.com/ZuzanaCaputova/status/1790742825732092015/, accessed 15.05.2024.
