Who is Robert Fico, the Slovak Prime Minister who was injured during the assassination?

2024-05-15 16:01:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Robert Fico

At noon on Wednesday, the Slovak Prime Minister was wounded by gunfire during an assassination attempt. The incident took place in front of a building in the central Slovak city of Handlova, where a government meeting was held.

He was immediately taken to the hospital and his condition is still unknown. Meanwhile, the author has been arrested by the police.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico returned to power after elections last September, leading a populist-nationalist coalition.

He leads the left-wing populist party Smer-SSD and won the vote last October on promises to cut military aid to Ukraine, but denied being pro-Russian.

His pledge to resist Western sanctions on Russia led some viewers to compare Fico to Hungary's right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Fico was forced to resign as prime minister after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018.

profile

Fico founded the Smer-SSD party in 1999 and has led the party since its foundation. Fico holds the record as the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for a total of over 10 years.

First elected to Parliament in 1992 (while inside Czechoslovakia), he was later appointed to the Council of Europe. After his party's victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections, he formed the first Fico cabinet. Fico's political stances have been described as populist.

After the 2010 parliamentary elections, Fico served as an opposition MP, effectively holding the post of opposition leader. After a motion of no confidence against the cabinet of Iveta Radi?ová, Fico was re-appointed as prime minister in a landslide electoral victory in the 2012 parliamentary elections.

In 2013, Fico officially declared his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election. Fico lost the election to his political rival, Andrej Kiska, in the second round of voting on March 29, 2014.

On 15 March 2018, due to the political crisis following the assassination of Ján Kuciak, Fico submitted his resignation to President Andrej Kiska, who then formally charged Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with the formation of a new government.

During the 2023 parliamentary elections, Fico campaigned to end military support to Ukraine during its Russian occupation.

His party Direction-Social Democracy (Smer), won the most votes in the elections, with 22.95% of the votes and won 42 seats.

Fico formed a coalition with the Voice-Social Democracy (Hlas) and the Slovak National Party and began his fourth term as prime minister on 25 October. /CNA