Who is Robert Fico? Slovak Prime Minister who opposed sanctions on Russia pledged to end military aid to Ukraine and once said Britain must ‘suffer’ from Brexit

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was left in a life-threatening condition after being shot by an assailant on Wednesday.

The 59-year-old seized power for the fourth time last October. In that time, he has shifted the country’s foreign policy toward more pro-Russian positions and pledged to end military aid to Ukraine.

He has also initiated criminal justice and media reforms, raising concerns about the weakening of the rule of law.

During a career spanning three decades, Fico has skillfully maintained the balance between pro-European mainstream and nationalist anti-Brussels and anti-American positions.

He has done this while demonstrating a willingness to change course depending on public opinion or changing political realities – but not without controversy.

In 2022, he was charged with organized crime and faced questions after an investigative journalist – working on a story about the Italian mafia’s activities in his country and their ties to people close to Fico – was shot dead in 2018.

The murders of 28-year-old Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnirová toppled Fico’s government at the time. However, the 2022 organized crime charges were later dropped and he was re-elected in 2023.

In addition to his current stint as prime minister, Fico also led the government in 2006-2010 and 2012-2018, but in the past four years he has taken more extreme positions.

These include sharp criticism of Western allies, promises to end military support to Kiev, opposition to sanctions against Russia and threats to veto future invitations to NATO membership for Ukraine.

He also once said that Britain must ‘suffer’ from Brexit.

His coalition has cut off Slovak official arms supplies to Ukraine and he has spoken about what he called Western influence in the war, which only led to Slavic nations killing each other.

Throughout his career, however, Fico has remained steadfast in his pledges to protect the living standards of those left behind in a country where conditions for many are only slowly catching up with Western Europe.

Many of his followers have relatively fond memories of a communist-era past.

‘Fico is an energy engineer, by far the best in Slovakia. He currently has no counterpart,” said sociologist Michal Vasecka of the Bratislava Policy Institute.

‘Fico always follows opinion polls, understands what is happening in society.

His “No round” campaign call for Ukraine appealed to voters in the country of 5.5 million, where only a minority in the NATO member country believes Russia is to blame for the war in Ukraine, which was started by Vladimir Putin in 2022.

Fico, who analysts say is inspired by Hungary’s Viktor Orban, has said he has Slovak interests at heart and wants the war to end.

Western allies and Ukraine say cutting military aid to Kiev would only help Russia.

“We see Viktor Orban as one of those European politicians who are not afraid to openly defend the interests of Hungary and the Hungarian people,” Fico told Reuters in emailed comments last year.

“He puts them first. And that should be the role of an elected politician, to represent the interests of his constituents and his country.”

Born into a working-class family, Fico graduated with a law degree in 1986 and joined the then ruling Communist Party.

After the fall of communist rule in 1989, he worked as a government lawyer, won a seat in parliament under the renamed communist party and represented Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights.

Fico has led the SMER Social Democracy party since 1999, after founding it to oppose the reformist center-right cabinet.

He channeled his dissatisfaction with liberal economic reforms into his first election victory in 2006.

But he also kept the country on track to adopt the euro in 2009, despite forming a nationalist government.

His second cabinet won after a new centre-right coalition collapsed two years later, and a tough stance on migrants helped him win re-election in 2016.

After that victory, he declared that he wanted Slovakia as part of the core of the EU, together with France and Germany.

Fico’s political fortunes faded in 2018 when journalist Jan Kuciak, who was investigating high-level corruption, and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were murdered by a hitman.

This led to mass protests against graft and Fico was forced to resign. SMER lost power in the 2020 elections to parties that promised to root out corruption, and his party split.

Polling below 10%, Fico once tried to address voters’ fears during the coronavirus pandemic when he decried government health measures.

“He became the most prominent political representative of a movement against face masks or vaccination,” said political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov.

At the same time, he took advantage of dissatisfaction with bickering within the ruling government and expressed doubts about its pro-Western direction, pushing pro-Russian narratives on social networks that had spread across Slovakia.

Fico also batted away allegations of corruption that have dogged his party throughout his political career. He was charged in 2022 with criminal conspiracy to use police and tax information on political enemies – charges he denied and which were later dropped.

The Prime Minister is now fighting for his life after reportedly being shot in the stomach and arm by a ’71-year-old assassin’.

The attacker was pushed to the ground by police as he tried to flee.

Fico was shot in Handlova, northeast of Bratislava, after a Slovak government meeting as he greeted adoring crowds.

The gunfire took place in front of the House of Culture, before a man, according to Pluska Juraj C news site, was quickly set upon and detained by security officials. Fico, meanwhile, was taken by his detail for medical attention.

A witness told Slovakian news site Dennik that Fico had left the building to greet people who had gathered to catch a glimpse of him before “several shots were fired.”

Harrowing footage of the near-fatal scenes shows the Prime Minister stumbling to the ground as his security team rushed to pick up his body.

He was then bundled into the back of a car, which sped away from the scene.

Slovak television showed images of a middle-aged man in jeans lying handcuffed on the ground. Separate footage from public television channel RTVS showed a person being taken from a helicopter on a stretcher and driven to a hospital.

Outgoing Slovak President Zuzana Caputova told reporters that “police have detained the attacker.”

“I am shocked, we are all shocked by the terrible and horrific attack,” she added.

“Today, after the government meeting in Handlova, an assassination attempt on Fico took place,” the government said in a message on social media.

“He is currently being transported by helicopter to Banska Bystrica in a life-threatening condition, as it would take too long to reach Bratislava due to the need for an acute intervention,” the government statement said.

Marta Eckhardtova, director of the local hospital in Handlova, said: “Fico was taken to our hospital and he was treated in our vascular surgery clinic.”

She could not describe his injuries.