00:00 "Outside the hospital where Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is fighting for his life,
00:07 Vladimir Radka stands alone praying.
00:10 In one hand he holds a Slovak flag, in the other a rosary.
00:15 He says he hopes the Prime Minister will heal soon and along with him, the country."
00:20 "There is a lot of hate in our society and it's unfortunate and this is the result."
00:29 Shortly after the attack, Slovakia's President Susana Čaputova and President-elect Peter
00:35 Pellegrini stood side by side, urging all political parties and the public to restore
00:41 calm.
00:42 Meanwhile, Slovakia's media company signed a joint online statement condemning the assassination
00:47 attempt and calling for unity.
00:50 We asked President-elect Pellegrini what the next steps he would take to tone down the
00:55 recent political rhetoric.
00:57 "We have to ask the people not to fight against each other only because they have other political
01:03 view or something like that and we have to stop this very huge tension in our society."
01:13 Slovakia's political debates have turned toxic over the last few years, according to analysts.
01:19 Both conservative and liberal factions have been locked in an all-out war of words that
01:24 further intensified after the start of the Ukraine conflict.
01:28 "I'm really proud of our politicians that all of them condemned the situation and all
01:34 of them spoke to people that we need to calm down the situation."
01:39 President-elect Pellegrini has called all political parties to suspend their European
01:44 Parliament campaign elections, set to take place in three weeks.
01:48 At least one party, the progressive Slovakia, said it has ended its campaign.
01:54 "Political analysts say the tense atmosphere in Slovakia can be partially attributed to
02:01 a seemingly endless round of political campaigns that kicked off last September 1st with the
02:08 parliamentary elections followed by the presidential elections and now the European Parliament
02:15 elections all charged with bitter political attacks."
02:21 Analysts say the time for reconciliation is now.
02:24 "It can easily be seen that NGOs are afraid, media are somewhat threatened.
02:31 We changed our judicial system just a couple of weeks ago so this is also the outcome of
02:37 the polarization."
02:38 Meanwhile outside the medical center, Radka says the attack on the Prime Minister has
02:43 also wounded his country's democracy.
02:47 Pablo Gutierrez, CGTN, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.
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