After an armed attack on Prime Minister Robert Figo, hatred erupted in Slovakia. The country is “on the brink of civil war”

A bullet pierced his stomach. Slovakia’s president-elect said on Thursday that the injury was a few millimeters short.

Attention, details can affect you emotionally.

Robert Kalinak, Slovak Defense Minister: “I will also inform you of Prime Minister Fico’s current health condition, which is serious.”

The director of the hospital, Miriam Labunikova, said: “He underwent a five-hour operation: two teams of doctors: surgeons and trauma doctors. The patient had multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to the intensive care unit.”

Government officials confirmed that Fico was shot at close range outside a cultural center in the central Slovak town of Handlova, where he had earlier attended a meeting.

Figo’s attacker is close to a pro-Russian group

Figo had come to greet his supporters and the attacker was among them. Witnesses say people close to him called him a robot and then fired five shots. At least one bullet pierced his abdomen. Others would have touched his hands and feet.

The suspect was arrested at the scene. The press identified him as Juraj Sindula, 71, poet, founder of a literary club, but political activist and current member of the pro-Western Progressive Party.

In a recording that appears to have been taken in police custody, the suspect says it began with his disagreement with government policy led by Robert Figo, particularly the restructuring of state television and measures to control the independent press.

I get conflicting information about him from the Slovak press. In his poems he identifies himself as a man who has come to fight back when he is attacked. If he now calls himself a progressive, in the past he would have been close to the pro-Russian group “Slovak Recruitment”. Self-proclaimed “patriots” fighting to protect Slovakia from waves of migrants.

He was also an employee of a private security company in the past.

Martin Procka, Markiza TV, Banska Bistrica: “The Interior Minister said the attack was politically motivated. The man who shot the prime minister, an old man from Levis, hates the government’s policies. The suspect has already been charged with attempted murder. He will be imprisoned for life”.

On the night of the attack, the interior minister declared that Slovakia was “on the brink of civil war” due to political tensions after the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Figo.

Slovak Interior Minister Matej Sudaj Estok: “We are slowly approaching the brink of civil war. Today there are many hateful comments on social networks.

Robert Figo, the leader of the left-wing populist party, distinguished himself by his pro-Russian and anti-Western rhetoric. In Slovakia, he is considered a divisive politician, with numerous protests against his policies. Fico has also drawn controversy from the European Union for his calls to end military aid to Ukraine and end economic sanctions against Russia.

Milan Nik, a former senior adviser to Slovakia’s deputy foreign minister: “We see the motivation for this attack in the internal politics of Slovakia, one of the most polarized countries in the EU. And Robert Figo is one of the figures who have dominated the political scene in the last 20 years.

Side by side, outgoing president Zuzana Caputova and Solvay’s president-elect Peter Pellegrini appealed for calm.

Zuzana Caputova, Acting President of Slovakia: “As a society, we are going through a period of many conflicts, but please do not push them to the point of hatred. We agreed with the President-elect to invite the leaders of all parliamentary political parties to the Presidential Palace with the sole aim of calming the situation and rejecting violence.

Slovakia’s President-elect Peter Pellegrini: “Therefore, I ask all parties in Slovakia to stop or at least significantly reduce the campaigning for the European Parliament elections. This brings tense situations and mutual recriminations between politicians, and conflict is the last thing Slovakia needs at this time.”