PM Fico Is No Longer In Critical Condition, Deputy Prime Minister: The Worst Thing We Fear Has Passed

Slovak PM Robert Fico. (Wikimedia Commons/EU2016 SK)

JAKARTA - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in critical condition but is still in serious condition, his deputy said on Sunday, four days after Europe's shocking assassination attempt.

"The worst thing we fear has passed, at least for now," Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak told a news conference outside the hospital where PM Fico was being treated in Banska City Bystrica.

Kalinak told reporters that PM Fico's condition was still too serious to consider moving him to a hospital in the capital.

"We are all a little calmer. When we say we want to be closer to positive prognosis, then I believe that we are one step closer to that," he explained.

"However, his condition remains very serious and therefore he will remain in the treatment of doctors at the Banska Bystrica hospital," said Kalinak.

As previously reported, a team of Slovak doctors will visit Monday to assess Prime Minister Robert Fico's health and discuss plans to move him, when his condition is serious but stable and can speak.

Local media reported on Friday that the medical board would gather on Monday to assess PM Fico's condition, before deciding whether he could be transported from the City of Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia to Bratislava.

PM Fico was shot several times after attending a government meeting in Handlova City, while intending to greet the people waiting for him outside the meeting location on Wednesday.

He was then flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, before being flown to another hospital in Banska Bystrica, east of Handlova, where he spent more than five hours in surgery, hospital officials said.

It is known that the shooting was the first attempted blatant murder of a European political leader for more than 20 years, drawing international condemnation.

The incident raises questions about PM Fico's security arrangements, as the attacker managed to fire five shots from close range, although the prime minister was accompanied by several bodyguards.