In a letter addressed to the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputová, on Thursday, the EU official added: "Today, the hardening of public discourse is a new danger that is putting our democracies to the test."

The letter was sent a day after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in a shooting in Handlova, about 150 kilometres from the country's capital.

This is the second case of an attack on a politician in the European Union (EU) in 15 days.

In early May, German MEP Matthias Ecke, 41, was attacked by a group of teenagers.

The candidate for re-election in the upcoming June European elections as the lead candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was attacked on 3 May and underwent surgery on Sunday after suffering fractures and bruising to his face.

In the letter sent on Thursday, Charles Michel stressed that "any violent attack against a democratically elected representative is also an attack against democracy and therefore against the people themselves."

"There is no place in a democracy for violent attacks against political leaders," the President of the European Council stressed.

The Slovak prime minister is conscious and able to communicate verbally, said the country's President-elect, Peter Pellegrini, who managed to speak to Robert Fico on Thursday in the hospital where he was admitted after being shot on Wednesday.

Pellegrini said that he only managed to speak to Fico for a few minutes, as the prime minister is very tired and under the effects of medication, local media reported.

The man who shot Fico is a 71-year-old from the southeastern town of Levice, who was detained by police at the scene of the attack.

The suspect has been identified by Slovak media as a local writer.

Robert Fico, 59, was hit in the stomach by several gunshots fired near the House of Culture in the town of Handlova.

The Slovak government announced on Thursday that the perpetrator of the attack on the prime minister has been charged with attempted murder and that the crime was politically motivated.

Read Also: Charles Michel shocked by attack on Slovak prime minister (Portuguese version)