In May, a gunman shot the Slovak prime minister five times as he was greeting supporters in the town of Handlova.
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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will have permanent health problems after surviving a shooting in May, his deputy prime minister has said.
Robert Kalyniak, who also serves as defence minister in Mr Fitch’s government, said Mr Fitch’s condition was gradually improving but that he was likely to suffer from musculoskeletal problems.
“His health is still far from ideal. After a bullet to the abdomen, his organs don’t function the way they did when he was 17 or 30. He’s still unstable. As part of his regular rehabilitation, the doctors are doing everything they can to help him reach the best of his abilities, and he’s getting close,” Kalyniak said.
Kalyniak added that Fico was due to appear in public again in the coming days, but did not say whether that would be in person or via video.
The announcement marks a marked improvement over Mr. Fico’s assessment of his health in a video in early June, his first public appearance since the shooting, in which he said it would be “a small miracle if I could return to work within the next few weeks.”
The 59-year-old prime minister was shot at close range in the abdomen on May 15 as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in Handlova.
The video shows him approaching people gathered at the barricades and reaching out to shake hands, when a man steps forward, extends his arm and fires five shots at him before being subdued and arrested.
Fico underwent a five-hour operation to repair multiple wounds sustained in the shooting, and then a further two hours of surgery two days later to remove dead tissue from the bullet wound.
In late May, he was airlifted from hospital in Banská Bystrica to the capital, Bratislava, to recuperate at home.
Fico later said he forgave his attacker and that he “feel[s]no hatred for the stranger who shot me.”
“I do not intend to actively pursue legal action against him or seek damages. I forgive him and will let him sort out in his own mind what he did and why he did it,” he said.
Just a week after the attack, all 130 members of the Slovak parliament passed a resolution calling on all political parties, civil society organisations and the media to respect the election results and not spread hatred against the democratically elected government, following condemnations by prominent figures who blamed a vicious culture for the assassination attempt on Fico.
