The prime minister had been greeting supporters at an event when the attempted assassination took place.
FILE - Slovakia 's Prime Minister Robert Fico arrives to a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Wednesday, but his deputy prime minister said he believed Fico would survive.
Doctors fought for Fico's life several hours after the pro-Russian leader, 59, was hit in the abdomen, Defense Minister Robert Kalina told reporters at the hospital where Fico was being treated. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, but 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 lead his country further from the Western mainstream.
President-elect Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Fico, called the shooting "an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy. If we express other political opinions with pistols in squares, and not in polling stations, we are jeopardizing everything that we have built together over 31 years of Slovak sovereignty."
"Such hateful comments are being made on social networks today, so please, let's stop this immediately," he said. Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere," he said.
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