Slovakia's populist prime minister shot, shocking Europe before elections

Slovakia's populist prime minister shot, shocking Europe before elections
BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia - Slovakia's populist Prime Minister
The prime minister had been greeting supporters at an event when the attempted assassination took place, shocking the small country and reverberating across Europe weeks before an election.
"I guess in the end he will survive," Tomas Taraba told the BBC, adding: "He's not in a life threatening situation at this moment."
Doctors fought for Fico's life several hours after the pro-Russian leader, 59, was hit in the abdomen, Defense Minister Robert Kalina told reporters at the hospital where Fico was being treated.
Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of the capital, government officials said. Fico was shot while attending a meeting of his government in the town of 16,000 that was once a center of coal mining.
A suspect was in custody, and an initial investigation found "a clear political motivation" behind the assassination attempt, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said as he briefed reporters alongside the defense minister.
Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, but his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would lead his country further from the Western mainstream.
Kicking off his fourth term as prime minister, his government halted arms deliveries to Ukraine, and critics worry that he will lead Slovakia - a nation of 5.4 million that belongs to NATO - to abandon its pro-Western course and follow in the footsteps of Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico's policies.