Doctors to discuss moving Fico to Bratislava after shooting

Slovak doctors will meet on Monday to assess Prime Minister Robert Fico's health and discuss the possibility of transporting him from Banska Bystrica to the capital Bratislava.

Fico remains in a serious but stable condition and is able to speak a little, the country's President-Elect Peter Pellegrini said on Thursday, a day after an assassination attempt that sent shock waves across Europe.

Local media reported that a medical council would convene on Monday to assess his condition and decide whether he could be transported from the central Slovak city of Banska Bystrica to Bratislava. The aktuality.sk news website attributed this information to a hospital director.

The shooting was the first major assassination attempt on a European political leader for more than 20 years, and has drawn international condemnation. Political analysts and lawmakers say it has exposed an increasingly febrile and polarised political climate both in Slovakia and across Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio on Friday that Fico was "between life and death".

Orban said even if Fico recovers, he would be out of work for months at a critical time in the run-up to European Parliament elections due early next month.

"We are facing an election that will decide not just about members of European Parliament but along with the US election can determine the course of war and peace in Europe," Orban said.

Fico and Orban have both criticised western weapons supplies to Ukraine.