Slovak Prime Minister Fico’s condition after the second surgery is “still very serious.”

When the police entered the suspect’s house on Friday, May 17, the condition of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was “still very serious,” his deputy and close associate said two days after the attempted assassination. “He was operated on again, he had an almost two-hour operation,” Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters outside the hospital in Banská Bystrica.

read more Slovak Prime Minister Fico expected to survive after being shot several times

“His condition is still very serious. I think it will be a few days before we see how his condition progresses,” Kalinak added on Friday. The director of the hospital in Banská Bystrica said Fico remained “conscious” even though he was in a “serious” condition.

Fico previously underwent five hours of surgery shortly after being airlifted from the scene of the attack on Wednesday. He was hospitalized after Wednesday’s shooting, which occurred when the 59-year-old leader was speaking to the public after a meeting in the shopping center.

On Friday, local media reported that Slovak police searched the home of the man accused of the shooting. Officers took the alleged bandit, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, to the apartment he shared with his wife in Levice in the west of the country, Marquis TV footage showed. “The police stayed in the apartment for several hours… They took a computer and documents from the apartment,” said the private broadcaster.

‘A lonely wolf’

Police, who told Agence France-Presse (AFP) they would not comment on ongoing investigations, did not name the suspect, but media identified him as 71-year-old writer Juraj Cintula.

On Thursday, he was charged with attempted premeditated murder in what authorities described as a politically motivated attack. “He is a lone wolf whose actions accelerated after the presidential elections because he was dissatisfied with the results,” said Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok.

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The attack raised fears of further violence and instability in the politically polarized country just weeks before European Parliament elections. The officials referred to the political situation in the country, whose political scene was marked by disinformation and attacks on social media during recent election campaigns.

Slovakia’s president-elect Peter Pellegrini, who won the April elections, on Wednesday called on political parties to suspend or limit their campaigns ahead of the EU vote. The largest opposition party, the centrist Progressive Slovakia, and others announced they had done so.

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Fico, a four-time prime minister and political veteran, returned to office in October. He has since made a series of remarks that have soured relations between Slovakia and neighboring Ukraine after he questioned the country’s sovereignty. After his election, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in 2022.

read more Slovakia announces the suspension of military aid to Ukraine

“Le Monde” from AFP