‘Lone wolf’ charged with shooting prime minister, Slovak interior minister says
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in hospital (Petr David Josek/AP)
The Slovak interior minister said on Thursday that a “lone wolf” has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The attempted assassination has shocked the small central European nation, with leaders blaming the attack in part on extreme political polarisation that has divided the country.
Interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok told a press conference that the man charged did not belong to any political groups.
Mr Fico was in a serious but stable condition on Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in the attempt on his life on Wednesday.
The interior minister said on Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Mr Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town.
However, he said Thursday that the suspect charged was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political groups”.
The minister did not specify what the motivation was. Mr Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course.
The attempt on Mr Fico’s life came at a time of high division in Slovakia, as thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital and around the country to protest his policies.
It also comes just ahead of June elections for the European Parliament.
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