FLASH
Shkruar nga Alessandra Muglia
The official reasons for the attack are not yet known, but many believe they are rooted in a climate of widespread hatred and growing polarization in society...
"Robert, come here!". A scream and then he fired. Five bullets and Robert Fico fell to the ground before the astonished eyes of his associates. The Slovak prime minister was shot in the chest and abdomen outside the House of Culture in Handlova, a town 150 kilometers northeast of Bratislava. The attacker, the Slovak Interior Ministry announced this morning, cited the government's media and justice policies as the reason for the attack. He also acted alone and premeditated.
Attack dynamics
Fico had just had a meeting with some of his ministers and was shaking hands with people who had come to see him. Then the volley of gunfire and time stood still. The situation immediately appeared very serious, there was no time to go to the capital: Fico was taken by helicopter to the hospital in Banska Bystrica, 29 kilometers from Handlova, where he underwent an emergency operation, which lasted 5 hours.
Wounds, coma and doctors' words
The local media have published information obtained from the hospital, which talks about a wound in the abdomen, in the epigastrium (upper quadrant of the abdomen) and at the height of the right hypochondrium (where the liver is located), but there is no damage to the skeleton. There are two other wounds - one on the forearm and one on the thumb - but superficial. Fico "is currently in intensive therapy and the next 24 hours are crucial. His condition is stable, but very serious", said the director of Banska Bystrica University Hospital, Miriam Lapunikova.
"I think he will survive in the end, his life is not in danger," said Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba. According to the latest information published by Slovak TV Ta3, he is in a coma.
arrest
The attacker, wearing jeans and a blue shirt, was immediately arrested. He is Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old writer from the south of the country, one of the founders of a liberal literary club.
The official reasons for the attack are not yet known, but many believe they are rooted in a climate of widespread hatred and growing polarization in society, exacerbated - if possible - by the upcoming European Parliament elections, where populist and conservative parties the extreme right seems ready to gain ground. The police, formalizing the charge against the 71-year-old, spoke of "attempted murder with premeditation for revenge". He risks "from 25 years in prison to life imprisonment".
Climate in the country
What happened is "a natural consequence of this climate, it could not have ended differently", the adviser to the prime minister, Eduard Chmelár, pointed out bitterly. "Now we should not blame each other, but ask the whole society to calm down", he hoped. And to set a good example, he welcomed the fact that the opposition called off protests against the government's controversial plan to intervene in public media, which would have given the government full control of state radio and television.
That the air has been poisoned for some time is proven by the fact that the outgoing president Zuzana Caputova ended up among the threatened politicians: precisely because she was tired of this political climate, she left and did not stand for the re-election last April. "A brutal and reckless attack, I'm in shock - she reacted. I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a speedy recovery".
Shocking reactions came from around the world, from Biden ("Jill and I are praying for a speedy recovery, we condemn this horrific act of violence") to Putin ("This heinous crime can have no excuse"). /Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Corriere Della Sera"
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