The condition of Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is still described as serious but stable after the assassination attempt earlier this week. The government announces this in an update on Saturday, several media reports.
Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak says Fico's condition does not yet allow him to be transferred to a hospital in the capital Bratislava. However, it should be possible to communicate with Fico and the government has not had to formally transfer his duties to someone else, Kalinak announces.
An operation on Friday must have been successful and contributed to the positive prognosis for Fico.
At the same time, Slovak media reports that the suspected shooter, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, has confessed to the crime, writes TT. The court has decided that he should be detained pending trial.
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Slovakia at a crossroads: "The genie is out of the bottle"
The assassination attempt on Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has shed light on the deep political division that prevails in the country, writes The Guardian. Milan Nic, analyst at the DGAP think tank, describes the country as one of Europe's most polarized, with recurring threats against politicians.
- This should not be seen as an isolated incident. The genie is out of the bottle, he says.
The BBC writes that the conflict between the country's political blocs has been unraveling for the past six months, but that the split can be traced back to 2018, when the journalist Ján Kuciak, who was investigating a corruption scandal, was murdered, which at the time forced Fico from power.
Pavol Babos, a sociologist at the Comenius University in Bratislava, says that after the assassination attempt, the country is at a crossroads. According to him, the decisive factor will be how Fico chooses to act - if he can come back after the attack.
- Does he become more aggressive and angry, or does he decide to calm down society and become more positive? I'd guess it's 60-40. I'm afraid he's full of revenge, he says.
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Wave of Russian disinformation minutes after the attack
Just minutes after the news that Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot, an extensive suspected Russian disinformation campaign was launched that blamed the attack on Ukraine, writes Wired.
The attack, which appears to have been coordinated, is said to have taken place via state-controlled Russian media, popular Telegram accounts and bot accounts on X.
So far, nothing has emerged to indicate that Ukraine had anything to do with the attack on Fico.
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