Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has posted a speech online in his first appearance since an assassination attempt three weeks ago.

In a pre-recorded speech posted on his Facebook ahead of the European Parliament election on Thursday, Mr Fico said the attack caused serious damage to his health and “it will be a small miracle if I return to work in several weeks”.

Mr Fico has been recovering from multiple wounds after being shot in the abdomen as he greeted supporters on May 15 in the town of Handlova, about 85 miles northeast of the capital, Bratislava.

An attacker was arrested.

Mr Fico said he should be back to work at the end of June, and that he felt “no hatred” towards his attacker.

“I forgive him,” he said.

He criticised the opposition and others, saying: “After all, it’s evident that he only was a messenger of evil and political hatred.”

Mr Fico suggested that his views of Russia’s war on Ukraine and other issues that sharply differ from the European mainstream had made him a victim.

“It’s cruel to state that, but a right to have a different opinion has ceased to exist in the European Union,” he said, blaming unspecified western countries for the alleged situation.

Mr Fico was released from hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica last week, and taken to his home in Bratislava, where he continues to recuperate.

A video of the attack shows him approach people gathered at barricades and reach out to shake hands as a man steps forward, extends his arm and fires five rounds before being tackled and arrested.

He immediately underwent a five-hour surgery, followed by another two-hour surgery two days later.

His government has made efforts to overhaul public broadcasting, a move critics said would give the government full control of public television and radio.

That, with his plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor, has led opponents to worry that he would lead Slovakia down a more autocratic path.