Slovakia Prime Minister Undergoes Further Surgery After Assassination Attempt

Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia underwent an additional surgery, officials said on Friday, as questions continued to swirl about the assassination attempt that put him in the hospital.

The authorities have kept details to a minimum about the attack, about the assailant and about who is leading the country while the prime minister is hospitalized, even as shock over the shooting has begun to give way to trepidation over what comes next for the deeply polarized country.

On Friday afternoon, Slovakia’s deputy prime minister, Robert Kalinak, said that the government was carrying on, telling a news conference that “all our work and tasks are being done.” He also offered an update on Mr. Fico, who he said had undergone a nearly two-hour surgery but was conscious.

“I can see progress,” he told reporters outside the hospital where Mr. Fico is being treated, adding, “I am in a much better mood now.”

Mr. Fico remains in serious but stable condition, according to the hospital director, Miriam Lapunikova. She said it was not yet known whether the prime minister would require additional procedures.

The brief afternoon update — the first from officials in nearly 24 hours — was unlikely to put to rest the many lingering questions in the aftermath of the attack.

The authorities still have not named the suspect — whom Slovakia’s interior minister described as a “lone wolf” radicalized after last month’s presidential election — nor said when he will appear in court to face a charge of attempted premeditated murder. They have called the shooting politically motivated and urged the public and politicians to dial down political rhetoric and hatred as investigations play out.

Local news media reported on Friday that police officers had escorted the suspect to his home in the central Slovak town of Levice, where they searched the premises and seized documents. The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Details of Mr. Fico’s injuries and condition also have been closely guarded. Local news outlets reported that doctors will meet on Monday to determine whether the prime minister can be moved to the capital, Bratislava, from the intensive care unit of the hospital in central Slovakia where he underwent surgery. Mr. Kalinak, though, said on Friday that it was too soon to start thinking about that.

“It’s a serious situation,” he told the news conference, expressing “full trust” in the medical team at the hospital, in Banska Bystrica.

He also appeared to dodge a question about who exactly is making high-level decisions for the government. There has been no formal announcement about who is in charge in Mr. Fico’s absence, although local news media have quoted ministers saying that Mr. Kalinak had been leading meetings.

“He is still the prime minister and is acting in the capacity he can,” Mr. Kalinak said of Mr. Fico, noting, however, that the capacity was limited. “I have never seen a stronger man.”

The authorities are mounting two investigations — one into the attacker, the other into the response of security forces at the scene — and urged against rushing to judgment.

Slovakian officials have acknowledged that there is criticism over the actions of officers. Local news outlets have published interviews with security experts analyzing the movements of the gunman and officers’ responses to try to understand how the attacker could have fired at least five times at close range before being subdued.

The inquiries are unfolding against a backdrop of deep political divisions in Slovakia. Mr. Fico has been pushing a strongly contested overhaul of the judiciary to limit the scope of corruption investigations, and he has moved to reshape the national broadcasting system to purge what the government calls liberal bias.

And senior officials in Mr. Fico’s governing Smer party have, in effect, accused liberal journalists and opposition politicians of motivating the assassination attempt through their intense criticism of government actions. Still, Mr. Pellegrini, an ally of Mr. Fico’s who was elected last month, has been among the loudest voices calling for calm.

Amid the dearth of information from the authorities, speculation over the attacker’s identity and motivations has been rife, prompting the Interior Ministry to repeatedly warn against spreading “unverified” details.

The ministry said late Thursday that “a large amount of misinformation” was circulating about the attack. On an existing ministry website dedicated to fighting hoaxes, it labeled a number of unconfirmed news reports — that the suspect was a member of a Slovak paramilitary group, that his wife was a Ukrainian refugee — as “not true” but did not offer up anything verifiable.

As officials warned that tensions risked spilling over, some in Slovakia were expressing concerns about whether Mr. Fico might yet die — but also what might happen should he recover.

“The polarization is very present in the society today and will get worse after this attack,” said Hana Klistincova, 34, a translator interviewed in Bratislava. “I personally am not afraid that the attack could repeat itself — it was the impulsive behavior of one individual — but I am afraid of the impact that this will have on society because of our coalition leaders, who started blaming the opposition and the media right after.”

Veronika Kladivikova, a 27-year-old seamstress from Banska Stiavnica, a small town in central Slovakia, said she was horrified by the attack.

“Even families are divided. I feel it in my own family,” she said, as she watched her child play in a sandbox at the park.

But she said that she was “not afraid right now,” adding, “I hope people will be sensible enough not to panic, or be even more against each other, divided.”

Sara Cincurova contributed reporting from Bratislava.