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Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/a> of Slovakia was shot five times on Wednesday, in the most serious attack on a European leader in decades. Officials said the act was a politically motivated assassination attempt<\/a>, stoking fears that Europe\u2019s increasingly polarized and vitriolic politics could tip into violence.<\/p>\n Mr. Fico, a veteran politician, underwent hours of emergency surgery after being critically wounded in a town in central Slovakia. Hospital and government officials said Thursday that Mr. Fico\u2019s condition had stabilized overnight but remained serious.<\/p>\n Here is what we know about the shooting.<\/p>\n Videos from the scene<\/a> indicate that Mr. Fico was shot in Banikov Square, in the center of the town of Handlova, where the prime minister had held a government meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The attacker is seen in the videos standing with other people behind a metal barrier before stepping forward and shooting Mr. Fico from just a few feet away as he came to greet them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Fico doubled over at the waist and fell backward onto a bench, and security officers hustled him into a black car. Mr. Fico was airlifted to a hospital in Banska Bystrica, a city near Handlova, according to Slovak officials.<\/p>\n Mr. Fico\u2019s condition stabilized overnight, and doctors were carrying out more procedures in an effort to improve his condition, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak said Thursday morning outside the hospital where the prime minister is being treated.<\/p>\n Miriam Lapunikova, the hospital\u2019s director, said Mr. Fico had undergone five hours of surgery for multiple gunshot wounds. She said that his condition remained \u201ctruly very serious\u201d and that he remained in an intensive-care unit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A suspect has been charged<\/a>, the country\u2019s interior minister said on Thursday, describing the man as a \u201clone wolf\u201d who was not affiliated with any \u201cradicalized political group.\u201d<\/p>\n The authorities have not named the suspect, but they had said that initial evidence showed that the act was \u201cclearly\u201d politically motivated.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time in the 31 years of our democratic sovereign republic, it happened that someone decided to express a political opinion not in an election, but with a gun on the street,\u201d Matus Sutaj Estok, Slovakia\u2019s interior minister, wrote on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Slovakia\u2019s president, Zuzana Caputova, called the assassination attempt an \u201cattack on democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Estok said more information about the shooter would be made public \u201cin the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Slovakia, the attempted assassination heightened polarization and added vitriol to an already divided political landscape, with Mr. Fico\u2019s allies accusing opponents of having \u201cblood on their hands.\u201d Lubos Blaha, a representative of Mr. Fico\u2019s party, Smer, said opponents and what he called \u201cthe liberal media\u201d had \u201cbuilt a gallows\u201d for the prime minister.<\/p>\n Abroad, the shooting drew condemnations from world leaders<\/a>, including Russia\u2019s president, Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Putin praised Mr. Fico, who has expressed pro-Russian views, and said that \u201cThis monstrous crime cannot have any justification.\u201d<\/p>\n Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary and Mr. Fico\u2019s ally, said that<\/a> he was \u201cdeeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Condemnations also came from the United States and the European Union. President Biden called the attack a \u201chorrific act of violence,\u201d and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, called it \u201cvile\u201d on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has faced waning support from Slovakia even though it delivered fighter jets<\/a> to Ukraine when the war began, also condemned the attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Fico, who has served as prime minister longer than any other Slovak leader, has presented himself as a fighter for the common man, and an enemy of liberal elites. Like Mr. Orban of Hungary, Mr. Fico has opposed immigration from outside Europe and aid to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He began his three-decade political career on the left, but over the years has embraced right-wing political views, and so did his party, Smer.<\/p>\n Mr. Fico previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He was ousted amid street protests in 2018 over the killing of a journalist who was investigating government corruption, but was re-elected last year<\/a> after a campaign in which he took pro-Russian stances, promised social conservatism, nationalism and generous welfare programs.<\/p>\n His critics have described some of Mr. Fico\u2019s plans as attempts to return Slovakia to repressive Soviet times<\/a>, and have criticized efforts by his government to overhaul state broadcasting to purge what they see as liberal bias and restrict foreign funding of nongovernmental organizations that it sees as foreign agents.<\/p>\n Reporting was contributed by Andrew Higgins, Lauren Leatherby, Cassandra Vinograd and Matthew Mpoke Bigg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHow did it happen?<\/h2>\n
What is Mr. Fico\u2019s condition?<\/h2>\n
Who was the gunman?<\/h2>\n
What has the reaction been?<\/h2>\n
Who is Mr. Fico?<\/h2>\n