More than a week after being shot in an assassination attempt, Slovakia’s prime minister was still hospitalized in serious condition on Thursday, as calls for political unity after the attack have given way to a resurgence of hostility in the polarized Central European nation.
Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times at close range on May 15 in the town of Handlova in central Slovakia. The attempted assassination — the most serious attack on a European leader in decades — sent shock waves through Europe.
Mr. Fico has undergone several surgeries since the shooting, and on Thursday the government said his condition “remains serious but stable” at a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica.
Even before Mr. Fico was shot, Slovakia was deeply divided between backers of his right-wing nationalist and anti-immigration policies, and opponents who accuse him of eroding democracy. The shooting prompted pleas from Slovakian officials for political parties to urgently reduce tensions — with some going so far as to warn about the risk of civil war.
But the attempts to lower the temperature appear to have fallen flat as the country returns to politics as usual.
Much of the hostility has centered around a divisive bill the government is pushing in Parliament that would give it control over the public broadcaster.
