Who is the 71-year-old suspected to have shot Slovakia PM Robert Fico?

On Wednesday (16 May), the Slovakian town of Handlova was shaken when the country’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot at, leaving him hospitalised with life-threatening injuries. Hours after the incident, a government minister said that 59-year-old Fico was no longer in danger after undergoing hours-long surgery.

The assassination attempt on Fico is the first on a European national leader since 2003, when Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic was killed.

Slovakia’s politicians and leaders termed the shooting an “attack on democracy”. It was also condemned by world leaders, with US president Joe Biden saying he was “alarmed” by the attempted assassination of Fico, calling it a “horrific act of violence.”

While Fico undergoes treatment after the assassination attempt — he was shot at five times — the gunman involved in the crime has been detained, and was later identified by local media to be 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, a government critic and poet who once founded a campaign group against violence.

We take a closer look at how the events unfolded on 16 May, who is the man behind it, and what this means for the European nation.

Who is Robert Fico?

Robert Fico returned to power for a fourth time in Slovakia after elections last year, making him the longest country’s longest-serving leader since it was established in the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993. His first few months in office this time around has been controversial as he halted military aid to Ukraine in January and in April pushed plans to abolish the public broadcaster, RTVS.

He is known to be a Putin ally, blaming “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” for provoking Vladimir Putin into launching the invasion.

How did the shooting take place?

On Wednesday, Fico was walking in a crowd of people after attending a government meeting in the town of Handlova in central Slovakia when people heard four shots ring out and the prime minister collapsing to the ground.

Fico’s security detail could be seen taking him inside his armoured limousine after the incident, with the Dennik N daily reporting that the PM was lifted into a car by security guards.

An eyewitness at the scene described the events as a “nightmare”, saying the shots fired sounded as if you were to “throw a firecracker on the ground.” Speaking to Reuters, Lubica Valkova said: I heard three shots, it was quick one by one like if you throw a firecracker on the ground. And then Fico fell next to the barrier.”

“I think it is a nightmare, I’ll tell you I think I will not wake up from this,” the 66-year-old said. “That this is not possible to happen in Slovakia.”

Fico was then airlifted to a nearby hospital in Banska Bystrica where it was initially reported that he had life-threatening injuries. Slovakian deputy prime minister Tomáš Taraba told the BBC that Fico “was heavily injured” and a bullet “went through the stomach and the second one hit the joints.”

Hours after Fico’s surgery, Taraba said the procedure in hospital had gone well. “I guess in the end he will survive,” Taraba said, adding: “He’s not in a life threatening situation at this moment.”

Meanwhile, the man responsible for the shooting was detained at the scene. Visuals showed a grey-haired suspect being handcuffed on the ground just after Fico was shot several times.

Who is the man suspected to be behind Fico’s shooting?

The grey-haired suspect has been identified as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, a government critic and poet. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters, “I think I can confirm this, yes,” when asked about reports identifying the man detained at the scene.

Cintula is the founder of the DUHA (Rainbow) Literary Club and from the town of Levice. He is the author of three poetry collections and two books and in 2015, he founded the campaign group Against Violence, and had sought to get it officially registered in Slovakia.

The movement calls on people to stand against violence in all forms, from “martial law to domestic physical or psychological violence,” as well as violence on the international stage, in Europe, “in which militarisation, extremism, neo-Nazism, anarchy are growing”.

The literary club has confirmed Cintula’s membership, and added that if he is confirmed to be the shooter, “the membership of this despicable person will be immediately cancelled”.

Cintula has been a critic of the Fico government. In the past, he came down heavily on the prime minister for not cracking down on gambling. He also denounced the “rich deviants” in Slovak society, who he said were poisoning public debate, as per a report in The Telegraph.

His son told news agency AFP that Cintula was a registered gun owner but that he had no idea what his father was thinking or planning. When asked if he felt any hatred toward Fico, the son said: “I’ll tell you this: he didn’t vote for him. That’s all I can say about it.”

How has Slovakia reacted?

The assassination attempt on Fico has stunned people in the country. The Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said that initial information pointed to “political motivation”.

Slovakia’s outgoing president Zuzana Caputova pointed fingers at the hateful rhetoric in the nation for the incident. A BBC report quoted her as saying, “The hateful rhetoric we witness in society leads to hateful acts.”

Even Slovakia’s defence and interior ministers blamed rising hate speech and division for the political atmosphere in the country, which they said led to the assassination attempt. Speaking to reporters in front of the hospital where Fico is being treated, Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák said: “Hate is not an answer to hate.”

Moreover, the shooting comes just three weeks before European parliament elections. The European Commission sources said the attack risked stoking further violence across the political landscape.

Internally too, the shooting comes at a crucial time for Slovakia, which is seeing a rise in violence. In 2022, two people were killed and another wounded in a shooting outside an LGBT venue in Bratislava.

With inputs from agencies