Prime Minister Robert Fico was moved to home care on Friday from a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica, where he was being treated following an assassination attempt. The European Union and NATO leader, a populist ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, opposed to Western involvement in the war in Ukraine, was shot multiple times earlier on May 15.
The suspected attacker has been identified as 71-year-old Juraj C. Following the attempt on his life, Fico, 59, underwent a five-hour operation, followed by a second surgical procedure two days later.
The attack left the Prime Minister in serious condition, but he is now stable enough to be discharged from the hospital to continue recovery at home. The assassination attempt marked the first major attack on a European political leader in over two decades.
Orbán described the assassination attempt as an attack by a “left-wing activist” and said it would disrupt his efforts to push for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. Since Fico’s shooting, the Secretary-General of NATO and the European Union High Representative have come out in favor of escalating the proxy war with Moscow by authorizing the use of Western weapons against targets inside Russia.
Pro-Ukraine social media users reacted to the news of Fico’s shooting by expressing hope that Orbán would be targeted next.
