Slovakia: Neo-Nazis terrorizing bar owned by anti-racist activist with impunity

News server Sme.sk reports that right-wing extremists have been terrorizing a bar frequented by students in the town of Nitra, breaking the owner’s leg and kicking two other people there into unconsciousness during one incident. One of the attacks was captured on video by a municipal security camera three months ago, but it is only now that an indictment is on the horizon.

Attack in the Mariatchi Bar

On a Saturday evening, just before midnight, skinhead youth came to the Mariatchi Bar in the center of Nitra. They provoked the customers and staff before asking to buy cigarettes.

When the staff refused, the skinheads began to shout loudly and refused to leave even after the owner asked them to. The customers pushed the right-wing extremists out of the club, but they returned with reinforcements. 

Radovan Richtárik, the owner of the bar, went outside to stop them. "I wanted to tell them to let it go, but they couldn’t wait," he says.

The skinheads immediately began to beat up both customers and Richtárik. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall to the ground was kicked in the face without mercy and brutally stomped.

One neo-Nazi was jumping up and down on the body of a man who was unconscious on the sidewalk. When a barmaid tried to drive him away, the other assailants slapped her.

They came from Valhalla

The October attack is not the only conflict that neo-Nazis have kicked off in the bar. Right-wing extremists have opened up their own business directly across the street called Walhala (Valhalla), which is licensed as a members-only card club.

The skinheads meet at the club on Saturdays, and Richtárik says there have been times when he had problems with them on a weekly basis. They make threats, kick in doors, and smash windows. 

These attacks on the bar are not random. The neo-Nazis are aware of Richtárik as an activist with the People against Racism (Lidé proti rasismu) initiative.

The regulars in Richtárik’s bar are students in particular. "People with dreadlocks also come here, and that bothers [the skinheads]," he says. 

The neo-Nazi attacks escalated on New Year’s Eve. "First they smashed in five windows here before midnight," one customer recalls, "and around 3 AM they returned to kick the doors in. [The owner] ran out after them with a camera. They saw him photographing them and they began to beat him up, pushing him to the ground, kicking and stomping him. I wanted to help him, but one of them grabbed me and held me back. When I tried to get away, he ripped my coat."

The bar owner was hospitalized with a broken leg and had to undergo an operation on New Year’s Day. Police are investigating the assaults but have not charged anyone with them yet.

The Slovak daily SME has seen the video footage shot in October and says the attackers’ faces are clearly visible in it. "Police are working intensively to solve both cases," says Regional Police spokesperson Renáta Čuháková, adding that the investigation of the case from October will soon be concluded. 

Assailants linked to Regional Governor

Walhala, the members-only "gentlemen’s card club" in Nitra, has been in business since the fall of 2012. It is open only on Saturday evenings, but not to the general public.

Richtárik says about 30 people usually gather there on Saturdays, with numbers rising when birthday celebrations or competitions are held there. The club members have formed a members-only group on Facebook as well.

The profile photograph for that group is a drawing of two skinheads shaking hands with the Slovak flag in the background. One of them has an abbreviation for the international neo-Nazi network Combat 18 tattooed on his neck.

Four administrators take care of the Facebook group. Three of them have previously run for parliament on behalf of the LS-NS (People’s Party – Our Slovakia) party chaired by Marian Kotleba, who is now the Banská Bystrica Regional Governor.

The Walhala club Facebook group is also being administered by Jakub Škrabák, currently the head of the fascist Slovak Solidarity (Slovenská pospolitost) association, which Kotleba used to lead. A political party of that same name was previously dissolved by the courts. 

Škrabák is the only administrator of the Facebook group not from Nitra. He ran for Kotleba’s LS-NS in 2010 and 2012.

Administrators Anton Baťovský and Dušan Sobolič have been activists for the National Resistance (Národní odpor) group; Baťovský has the name of that organization tattooed on his back. Both were candidates for Kotleba’s party in 2010.  

Neo-Nazis in Nitra

There have been several other such attacks in the town, such as one in 2008 where youth were attacked in front of the Old Theater, and the militant neo-Nazi movement has established a branch of the National Resistance network there. The neo-Nazis have been organizing an annual "March against Drugs" in Nitra on the anniversary of the founding of the Fascist wartime Slovak state, which collaborated with Nazi Germany.