European officials fear that after the assassination attempt, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will become more vocal in his opposition to NATO decisions, according to the Financial Times.
Officials suggest that he will strengthen his opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine. Such a move could undermine NATO decisions and efforts to provide military assistance to the war-torn country to end the conflict, they feared.
Some even compared Fico to his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, who delayed Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Before the assassination attempt, Fico supported Orbán in refusing to appoint Mark Rutte as NATO’s next secretary general. Currently, potential candidate Rutte is serving as the acting prime minister of the Netherlands.
Previously, Slovak police escorted the suspect accused of shooting Fico to his home in search of new evidence. According to media reports, the suspect was a 71-year-old man known as an amateur poet. He may have previously worked as a security guard at a shopping centre in the south-west of the country.
On Sunday, Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok spoke at a press conference on the security situation in the country. He stated that the gunman was not the one who deleted the alleged shooter’s Facebook story hours after the attack.
Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák stated that the so-called “lone wolf” might have communicated with someone in his inner circle about the assassination attempt. This made it more likely “that he did not act alone,” the minister added.
