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President Biden has issued a statement following the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was critically injured in a shooting incident on Wednesday. 

Biden described the event as a “horrific act of violence” and confirmed that the US embassy is coordinating closely with the Slovak government to provide necessary assistance.

The attack occurred in Handlova, a town in central Slovakia, where Prime Minister Fico was shot multiple times after engaging with supporters. Shortly after that, a statement on his Facebook account revealed that he was in a “life-threatening condition” and had been airlifted to a hospital. “The next few hours will decide,” the post indicated, highlighting the gravity of his condition.

Slovakian President Peter Pellegrini labeled the shooting an “assassination attempt” and a severe threat to the nation’s democracy. He emphasized the peril of resolving political differences with violence, stating on the social platform X, “If we express different political opinions with guns in the squares, and not in polling stations, we endanger everything we have built together in 31 years of Slovak sovereignty.”

The incident has drawn widespread condemnation from international leaders. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg have all voiced their disapproval of the attack, as has European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who remarked, “Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good.”

Authorities reported that a 71-year-old man, Juraj Cintula, carried out the attack using a legally purchased firearm.