(Reuters) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he could possibly return to work this month, in a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday marking his first public comments since a May 15 assassination attempt.
In the video, Fico called his attacker an activist of opposition parties, saying there was no reason to believe it was the shooting was a “lone lunatic”. He added that he felt no hatred toward the attacker and said it was time for forgiveness.
Fico is recovering at home after he was shot with four bullets at close range when he greeted supporters at a government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova. The attack left him in serious condition in hospital and needing hours of surgery.
“On May 15, a Slovak opposition activist tried to assassinate me in Handlova because of my political views,” Fico said in the video, adding medical staff had prevented the worst.
“If everything goes optimally, I could gradually return to work at the turn of June and July.”
Dressed in a button-down shirt with rolled sleeves and filmed from the waist up sitting in a black leather office chair with a red curtain behind him, Fico looked in good health in the video.
His attacker, identified by prosecutors as 71-year old Juraj C., was detained on the spot and charged with attempted premeditated murder.
The incident has highlighted the deep polarisation of politics in the central European country of 5.4 million people.
Opposition parties have led protests against Fico’s government as it shifts policy by stopping military aid to Ukraine, ending a special prosecutor’s office despite rule of law concerns, and revamping the state television and radio broadcaster.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Comments