Dwell Updates: Slovakia’s Chief Survives Surgical procedure After Capturing, Deputy Says

The capturing was essentially the most severe assault on a European chief in a long time, drawing shock and condemnation from Slovak officers and different European leaders and stoking fears that Europe’s more and more polarized and venomous political debates had tipped into violence.

The occasions have been captured on movies, which confirmed Mr. Fico, 59, approaching a small group of individuals behind a waist-high steel barrier on a public sq. within the city of Handlova, when a person stepped ahead and fired a pistol from only a few ft away. 5 bangs could possibly be heard.

With the primary bang, Mr. Fico doubled over on the waist and fell backward onto a bench as extra stories ring out. Safety officers then hustled him right into a black Audi a number of ft away, half-carrying him to the automotive’s rear door. He was taken to a neighborhood hospital and airlifted to a different for surgical procedure.

Safety officers on the scene of the capturing wrestled a suspect to the bottom, and officers stated that preliminary proof pointed to political motivations. The authorities didn’t determine the suspect, whom Slovak information retailers described as a 71-year-old poet. The nation’s inside minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, stated extra info can be made public “within the coming days.”

The president of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova, whose place is basically ceremonial, stated in a press release, “The capturing of the prime minister is before everything an assault on a human being, nevertheless it’s additionally an assault on democracy.”

The capturing additionally drew a refrain of condemnation from world leaders, together with President Biden, who known as it a “horrific act of violence,” and Russia’s chief, Vladimir V. Putin, who lauded Mr. Fico as a “brave and strong-minded man.”

Mr. Fico started his three-decade political profession as a leftist however through the years shifted to the correct, as did the celebration he based, Smer. He served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018, earlier than returning to energy in elections final 12 months. After being ousted amid road protests in 2018, he was re-elected on a platform of social conservatism, nationalism and guarantees of beneficiant welfare applications.

Mr. Fico offered himself as a pugnacious fighter for the frequent man and an enemy of liberal elites and immigration from outdoors Europe, and he aligned with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, in opposing assist to Ukraine and difficult mainstream opinions inside the European Union.

Domestically, his critics accused him of undermining the independence of the information media, opposed his efforts to limit overseas funding of civic organizations and known as him a menace to democracy. In addition they accused Mr. Fico of looking for to take Slovakia again to the repressive days of the Soviet bloc.

Here’s what else to know:

• Mr. Fico was in Handlova to carry a governmental assembly, which he adopted with a practically hourlong information convention. He had simply emerged from these occasions when he was attacked.

• The Parliament of Slovakia suspended its conferences and stated it was “considerably” bolstering its safety measures. A few of Mr. Fico’s parliamentary allies prompt that his liberal opponents had created the ambiance for the capturing.

• Michal Simecka, the chair of the opposition celebration Progressive Slovakia, stated he shared within the “horror” of the assault and pressured that the attacker was not a member of his motion or linked to his celebration in any approach.

Pavol Strba and Gaya Gupta contributed reporting.