Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, was injured in an assault on Wednesday, in response to the nation’s president.
Native media reported that Mr. Fico, a veteran politician, had been shot and wounded within the central Slovakian city of Handlova, the place he had been assembly with supporters.
President Zuzana Caputova, whose pro-Western stance has put her at odds with Mr. Fico, condemned what she described as a “brutal and reckless assault.”
“I’m shocked,” she wrote in a message on Fb. “I want Robert Fico quite a lot of energy on this crucial second to get well from the assault.”
The extent of Mr. Fico’s accidents was not instantly identified. There was no fast remark from the prime minister’s workplace or from the police.
Photos from the scene revealed by the Reuters information company exhibiting what seemed to be members of Mr. Fico’s safety element working round a black sedan. Different pictures confirmed an individual handcuffed on the bottom on the scene.
Ms. Caputova, whose time period ends in June, has used her restricted powers to withstand Mr. Fico’s drift towards Russia and his efforts to restrict the judiciary’s potential to prosecute corruption.
Mr. Fico has aligned with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, in opposing help to Ukraine and difficult mainstream opinions throughout the European Union.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Fee who has butted heads with Mr. Fico prior to now, stated she strongly condemned the “vile assault.”
“Such acts of violence haven’t any place in our society and undermine democracy, our most treasured frequent good,” she wrote on social media.
Mr. Fico, who ended an earlier stint as prime minister by resigning in 2018 amid a swirl of corruption accusations, has additionally adopted Mr. Orban in attempting to neuter his nation’s judiciary and in casting supporters of Ukraine as disloyal lackeys of america.
Mr. Fico returned to energy after a normal election in September, reviving a political profession that many had thought of over when he stop amid giant avenue protests after the killing of an investigative journalist who had been trying into authorities graft.
