Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured in an assassination attempt on May 15 in the town of Handlova in Slovakia.
- The assailant, identified by Slovakian media as Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old poet, attempted to assassinate PM Robert Fico. Cintula was a former employee of a private security company and author of a poetry collection.
- Robert Fico, a four-time prime minister and political veteran, is accused of swaying Slovakia’s foreign policy in favour of Russia.
- Fico was born in 1964 in what was then Czechoslovakia. He joined the Communist Party before the fall of communism, earned a law degree in 1986, and was first elected to Slovakia’s parliament in 1992 with the Party of the Democratic Left.
- In 1999, he became chairman of the Smer (Direction) party and has been a key figure in it ever since.
- People often describe Fico and Smer as left-populists. Fico returned to power in Slovakia 2023, previously serving as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018.
- His third term made him Slovakia’s longest-serving head of government.
Slovakia
- Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia until the “velvet divorce” in January 1993.
- Slovakia is a member of the European Union and NATO.
- Slovakia is also a Euro area member since 1 January 2009 and Schengen member since 21 December 2007.
