The Slovak interior minister on Thursday said that a “lone wolf” had been charged with attempted murder in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fico was in serious but stable condition on Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections.

The attempted assassination shocked the small central European nation, with many blaming the attack in part on extreme political polarisation that has divided the country.

Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok on Wednesday said that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town. However, he clarified this on Thursday, saying the suspect charged was a lone wolf who “did not belong to any political groups". (AP)