Bratislava, June 5 (TASR) - In a video he posted on a social network on Wednesday, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said that if everything goes optimally, he might return to work at the turn of June and July.

Fico doesn't plan to take any action against the man who shot him and forgives him. He called the shooter an activist of the Slovak political opposition.

"On May 15, in Handlova, an activist of the Slovak opposition attempted to murder me for my political views," declared Fico, adding that he has no reason to believe that the assassination attempt was a lone wolf incident. In the Prime Minister's view, it's evident that the shooter was a "messenger of evil and political hatred that the politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition has escalated to an unsustainable extent in Slovakia".

Fico underlined that he principally disagrees with the politics of only "one right opinion" that is "so recklessly promoted by some large Western democracies".

"Not all large democracies were happy when I rejected the airstrikes on Belgrade, withdrew Slovak troops from Iraq, blocked the introduction of mandatory quotas for illegal migrants or radically turned down the proposal to scrap the right of veto for the EU member states," claimed Fico. "A self-confident sovereign Slovak foreign policy, anchored in our EU and NATO memberships, but oriented towards all four cardinal directions in simply not in vogue. Ties between my political representation and EU and NATO partners have become tense following the Russian attack on Ukraine, when we have refused to provide Ukraine any military aid from our state reserves, aside from humanitarian aid, and continue to strongly prefer peace rather than war. It is the conflict in Ukraine that has served to reinforce, even literally sanctify, the concept of only one right opinion within the EU and NATO, which is that the war in Ukraine must continue at any cost with the aim of weakening the Russian Federation," declared Fico and added that anyone who doesn't subscribe to this view is instantly called a Russian agent and ostracised on the international stage.

Fico blamed the hatred and aggressiveness of the incumbent opposition, "backed and tolerated by mainstream media, non-governmental organisations financed from abroad, and, unfortunately, ignored by international organisations" for radicalising the shooter.

"The opposition shows no respect for the results of democratic parliamentary election and authorities," averred Fico.

The Prime Minister hopes that the pain he's going through will have some benefit for Slovakia. "The people could see with their own eyes the horrors that might happen if someone is incapable of competing in politics democratically and respecting other opinions. I'm no political angel, either. I can be tough. And even the governments I've been heading haven't been perfect," conceded Fico.

He added that an offer to do things better must form the basis of political competition when vying for voter support. "The offer cannot be to imprison a political opponent without a reason or having him treacherously murdered. These are things that the opposition will need to think about. If it doesn't change its current mindset, the horrors of May 15 that you all had an opportunity to see practically live will continue and there will be more victims. I'm confident of that."