'Path of hatred' condemned as the Fico shooting stirs up poisonous Slovakian politics

Tom Watling on tensions behind PM assassination attempt

- Tom Watling

As Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico recovers from surgery after having been shot five times at close range, critics of his ruling party fear the attack could be used to widen the political faultlines in a country that has been on edge for months.

Mr Fico's condition is stable but "serious" according to hospital officials, while a suspect has been charged with attempted murder and could face life imprisonment. Miriam Lapunikova, director of the University FD Roosevelt hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Mr Fico was taken by helicopter after he was shot, said he underwent a CT scan and is awake and stable in an intensive care unit. She described his condition as "very serious".

"I think it will take several more days until we will definitely know the direction of the further development," said defence minister and deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak, speaking at the hospital.

Interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok, in a statement, described the gunman as a “lone wolf" who is "not a member of any rightwing or left-wing radicalised party". But in the same breath he asked journalists to "reflect" on how they had covered Mr Fico's policies, before insisting that the attack was politically motivated.