Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after being shot several times, the deputy prime minister, Tomas Taraba has said.
Taraba said Fico’s surgery had gone “well” and “I guess that at the end he will survive”.
Earlier the defence minister said Fico was “fighting for his life” after being gravely injured in an attack in the small town of Handlova.
A suspect was detained at the scene of the shooting.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estoka described it as a politically motivated assassination attempt.
Following the shooting, Fico was rushed to hospital and spent several hours in surgery “fighting for his life”, according to Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, who spoke at a news conference from outside the hospital where Fico was being treated on Wednesday.
There has been no official update on the prime minister’s condition since then, but his second-in-command has since told the BBC that Fico was “not in [a] life-threatening situation at this moment”.
“As far as I know, the operation went well and I guess that at the end he will survive,” Taraba said.
Taraba added that the prime minister was shot “from very close” and that “one bullet went through the stomach and the second one hit the joint”.
Police have not yet identified the alleged suspect. Unconfirmed local media reports say he was a 71-year-old writer and political activist.
A video being widely circulated on Slovak media purports to feature the suspect.
In the footage, the man says he disagrees with government policy and its stance towards state media.
The shooting came on the day parliament began discussing the government’s proposal to abolish Slovakia’s public broadcaster RTVS.
Thousands of Slovaks have protested against the proposed reform of the public broadcaster in recent weeks. However, a planned opposition-led demonstration was called off on Wednesday as news of the shooting emerged.
(BBC)
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