The Slovak police are investigating a possible broader criminal conspiracy surrounding the May 15 attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

He was shot multiple times, and has survived his wounds, by what authorities initially said was a “lone-wolf” shooter who was immediately taken into custody. That official narrative appears to quickly be shifting, however.

Europe’s most ‘controversial’ national leaders: Robert Fico and his ally and friend Viktor Orbán in Budapest.

The 71-year old attacker fired five shots while Fico greeted supporters in the street outside a government building, sustaining life-threatening injuries.

Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak announced over the weekend of Fico, “He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care.“

“We can consider his condition stable with a positive prognosis,” Kalinak said outside the hospital where the prime minister is expected to remain likely for an extended period of time. “We all feel a bit more relaxed now.”

Concerning the shooter’s motives, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok has said in a fresh briefing that “the suspect was angered by the government’s Ukraine policy” and that he may not have been a lone wolf. According to Bloomberg:

On Sunday, authorities said that cooperation with domestic and foreign intelligence services had led to a broadening of the probe, to include a version in which a group – which wasn’t identified – may have been linked to the crime.

According to more details from Estok, “A potential broader assassination plot is supported by the fact that the assailant’s social media communications were erased by another person about two hours after the shooting.”

The Interior Minister explained, “we added a version that it wasn’t only a lone-wolf attacker, but that the crime may have been conducted by a certain group of people.”

There hasn’t been an assassination attempt on a head of state in Europe for some two decades, international reports have underscored. 

Slovak Prime Minister Fico was shot in an armed attack 3 days after meeting with Azerbaijani President Aliyev.

The Iranian President’s helicopter crashed hours after his meeting with Ilham Aliyev. pic.twitter.com/2m6Ad1ARCO

— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) May 20, 2024

Fico had long been outspoken against deepening Western involvement in the Ukraine war, for which he’s made many enemies and critics among Western allies, and of course within Ukraine itself.

For example, here’s how CNN last October described his ascendancy to prime minister and leader of the small NATO member state… “A party headed by a pro-Kremlin figure came out top after securing more votes than expected in an election in Slovakia, official results show, in what could pose a challenge to NATO and EU unity on Ukraine.”

While in the hospital fighting for his life, Fico’s top officials have at times lashed out at Western media, telling reporters to ‘reflect’ on the way they cover the populist prime minister and his policies.