Another operation was performed on the prime minister of Slovakia. He is in critical condition – Winnipeg Free Press

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico underwent another operation two days after being shot multiple times and is in critical condition, officials said Friday.

Fico, 59, was attacked as he greeted supporters after a government meeting in the former coal mining town of Handlova. The suspect of the attack was arrested.

Miriam Lapunikova, director of the FD Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Fico was airlifted after the shooting, said Fico underwent a CT scan and was awake and stable in the intensive care unit. He described her condition as “extremely serious”.

According to him, the operation removed the remaining dead tissue from Fico's body.

Defense Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliniak told reporters at the hospital: “I think it's going to take a few more days before we know exactly where we're going to move forward.”

However, Kaliniak noted that the government is continuing to work.

“The ministries are fulfilling all their duties, nothing is frozen or suspended, the country continues,” he told reporters. “The situation is stable, today the condition of the patient is also stable.”

Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond. His return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American platform raised concerns among European Union and NATO members that he would abandon his country's pro-Western stance, particularly on Ukraine.

World leaders condemned the attack and expressed support for Fico and Slovakia. On Friday, the Slovak Press Agency reported that Pope Francis sent a letter to President Zuzana Čaputova.

“I condemn this cowardly act of violence and assure you that I pray to the Lord for the prime minister's speedy recovery and recovery,” Francis said in a letter published by the agency.

A man accused of trying to assassinate Fico was taken to his home by police early Friday. Local media reported that this was part of the search for evidence.

Slovakian TV channel “Markiza” showed the moment of Friday morning when the suspect was taken to his home in Levica, and reported that the police confiscated a computer and some documents. Police did not comment.

Prosecutors told police not to identify the suspect or release other details about the case. The suspect's arrest will be heard at a hearing on Saturday at Slovakia's Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, outside the capital Bratislava.

Unconfirmed reports suggested he was a 71-year-old pensioner known as an amateur poet and may have previously worked as a security guard at a shopping center in the southwest of the country.

On Thursday, government officials provided details that fit that description. They said the suspect did not belong to any political group, but the attack was politically motivated.

The Slovakian president's office said on Friday that it was working to organize a meeting of the leaders of all parliamentary parties on Tuesday. Chaputova, the outgoing president, announced the plan with her successor, Peter Pellegrini, in mid-June in an effort to ease social tensions in the country.

Slovakia was one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, but it stopped supplying arms to Ukraine after Fico returned to power, his fourth term as prime minister.

Fico's government also pushed for an overhaul of public broadcasting – a move critics say would give the government total control over public television and radio. That, along with his plan to remove a special anti-bribery prosecutor from the criminal code, has left opponents worried that Fico will lead Slovakia down an autocratic path.

Thousands of demonstrators have rallied in the capital and across the country of 5.4 million to protest his policies.

Fico said on Facebook last month that he believed rising tensions in the country could lead to the death of politicians and blamed the media for stoking the tension.

Before Fico returned to power last year, many of his political and business associates were the focus of a police investigation and dozens were charged.

His plan to overhaul the criminal justice system will eliminate the special prosecutor's office that deals with organized crime, corruption and extremism.