Zuzana Kumanová: Fico's would-be assassin admired Kotleba and identified with mass murderers of Romani people in Slovakia
Slovakia was shaken yesterday by the report of an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico. After a local cabinet session in Handlová, the PM made the unusual decision to greet local people and shots were fired at him from the crowd. This is an unimaginable scenario. However, in Slovakia we have long witnessed polarization here, furrows being plowed between different groups in society. Hatred and intolerance are present in public life. It's true that Romani people have always encountered such attitudes here, but other groups are taken aback when they become the targets of hatred.
An acquaintance of mine posted to social media that he does not believe this is Slovakia’s “Sarajevo”, in other words, it won’t spark a civil war. I also believe it probably will not lead to more violence, but aren’t we already in a hybrid civil war right now?
The assassin is allegedly 71-year-old Juraj C., whom the media have managed to identify as the author of several books who lives in Levice, an older, eccentric man playing the role of a somewhat unconventional person who is somewhat provocative. However, it turns out that he is the author of a fairly extensive book (262 pages) entitled Efeta, which can be characterized by this excerpt: “There have never been as many shameless gypsies in Europe as there are today. They see the social systems and know very well how to exploit them. The state is not solving this problem, it’s just nibbling at it around the edges. A hundred thousand Slovak gypsies want the favor of the whites, but they’ll never tell us that… Let’s be strict and just toward them…”
The book was published in 2015 by the LVT press in Levice. It probably would have been completely forgotten about, but the brutal crime committed by its author has suddenly placed it at the center of attention. What is the book about? Radicalism, extremism, neo-nationalism and anarchy.
In the book, the author defends the mass murderer Ľubomír Harman, who murdered eight people in 2010 in the neighborhood of Bratislava – Devínská Nová Ves, and that attack on a Romani family in particular cannot be considered anything other than racially motivated. Would-be assassin Juraj C. indirectly identifies in the book with the murderer, writing that Harman could no longer stand the burden of coexistence with his “inadaptable” Romani neighbors because the state was not addressing it. He perceives Harman to be a martyr who sacrificed himself to draw attention to this problem.
The would-be assassin has a similar take on another murderer of Romani people, Milan Juhász of Hurbanovo, who shot three Romani people dead in 2012.
This book makes apparent its author’s admiration for people who prefer radical solutions. He makes no secret of his admiration for the ideas of the followers of Marian Kotleba, who in his day was the most visible representative of the ultra-right and of the advocates of harsh solutions towards Romani people, whom he did not hesitate to call “parasites”.
The question arises as to how many such Roma-hating men there are in Slovakia? How many of them are publicly presenting their ideas while society, all of us, does nothing to defend ourselves against them?
Nine years have passed since that book was published. During all that time, nobody confronted the author over the book’s contents or sued him for his racist remarks. This certainly was also because there are many such verbally aggressive remarks in our public debate. Society has become coarse, or maybe social media has just facilitated the coarseness spreading faster.
They say that whoever sows the wind, reaps the storm. The Slovak Prime Minister is in the hospital fighting for his life. Today we all realize that violence begets violence, but it begins with words. In recent years, too much aggression and hatred has been heard from the mouths of politicians, from those who are meant to lead the country. It’s not so long ago that calls were heard from the stands for the president to be labeled an anti-Slovak c***. It’s high time this stops, otherwise…!
They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Romani people are the weak link and, as it turns out, the litmus test. If we continue to be indifferent to racist speech, if we allow the claim to be made that the Roma themselves are to blame for their situation, if we see the Roma as an obstacle to our notional well-being, then it seems there could be more confused people such as Harman, Juhász and Juraj C. If even the country’s prime minister isn’t safe from them, then how are those on the fringes of society supposed to feel?
I wish Robert Fico a speedy recovery.
