Bratislava, June 5 (TASR) - The first post-shooting speech by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) directly contradicts the purported call for calming down tensions in Slovakia, opposition SaS party declared on Wednesday.

SaS responded this way to a video posted by Fico on Facebook and took objection to Fico's effort to associate the shooter with SaS and its politics.

"Robert Fico had an opportunity to leave his past behind and become a better man. He could have shown the greatness of a statesman. Instead of making an attempt at nationwide reconciliation and taking a step back also on his side, we witnessed the exact opposite," commented SaS leader Branislav Groehling.

Groehling finds it beyond the pale to "tar the opposition, the media and NGO sector" and rejects Fico's statements about foreign powers attempting to influence Slovakia's politics via the opposition. "This is not the way to go forward, on the contrary, the division and hatred in our society will only grow," he warned.