The incident took place outside of the vice president’s home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta at 9 p.m. on Thursday. As Fernández de Kirchner was greeting supporters, a man approached her and raised a handgun to her face. According to President Alberto Fernández, the weapon was loaded with five bullets.

“A man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger,” the president said in a national broadcast.

But the gun did not go off when the attacker attempted to fire, and Fernández de Kirchner survived the assassination attempt, appearing unharmed in videos of the attack.

“Cristina is still alive because, for some reason yet to be confirmed, the gun… did not fire,” President Fernández said.

The federal police arrested a 35-year-old Brazilian man on the scene of the attack, and he’s now in custody. According to reports, a gun was found near the scene.

The president declared Friday a national holiday to allow people to “express themselves in defense of life, democracy and in solidarity with our vice president.”

“The outcry, horror and repudiation that this event generates in us should become a permanent commitment to eradicate hate and violence from our democratic lives,” he said.

Fernández de Kirchner, 69, a two-time former president and now vice president to Fernández, is a leading politician in Argentina, but also a divisive and controversial figure.

She is currently in the midst of a corruption trial and was returning from court at the time of the attack. She has been accused of defrauding the state and of favoring the construction firm of a family friend for roadwork projects assigned during her two terms in office between 2007 and 2015.

If convicted, she could face up to 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics. Fernández de Kirchner denies the charges.

President Fernández condemned the attack and called it one of the “most serious” incidents since the country returned to democracy in 1983.

“We can disagree, we can have deep disagreements, but hate speech cannot take place because it breeds violence and there is no chance of violence coexisting with democracy,” he said.

Argentina’s economy minister Sergio Massa wrote on Twitter condemning the “assassination attempt” and the culture of “hate and violence” spreading in Argentina’s politics.