Man suspected of assassination attempt on Slovak PM Fico wrote a book with references to "shameless gypsies"

The Televize Markíza tv channel has named the would-be assassin as author Juraj Cintula from the town of Levice and reported that he drove to the place where he shot at the PM in his own vehicle. Fico was shot in Handlová, where he was attending a traveling cabinet session.

Czech daily Deník N reports that a photograph of Cintula’s state-issued identification card is being shared on social media by the Slovak antisemite and extremist Daniel Bombic, who has been prosecuted for crimes in the past. The alleged perpetrator published several collections of poetry, established the Duha Literary Club in Levice, and worked for a private security service in 2016.

The Czech human rights activist Miroslav Brož has drawn news server Romea.cz’s attention to an anti-Romani text published by the alleged attempted assassin in his book Efata: About gypsies and Roma [Efata: o cigánoch a Rómoch]. In that book, Cintula wrote: “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…”

Slovak MEP Peter Pollák, who is of Romani origin, published a status update to his social media calling the assassin a racist. “The attacker who shot R. Fico was also a racist! He also made racist remarks about the Romani people,” Pollák, who represents the Slovensko (Slovakia) movement, posted.

Fico is in critical condition and being operated on, say the Defense Minister and Interior Minister

Speaking to journalists shortly after 20:00 CET, Slovak Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák and Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok said Fico was in critical condition and had been undergoing more than three and a half hours of operations. Šutaj Eštok said the assassination attempt was politically motivated.

“The information we have is that he suffered serious multiple traumas caused by several gunshot wounds and he is in exceptionally serious condition,” said Kaliňák, who is Fico’s close co-worker in the Směr-sociální demokracie (Direction-Social Democracy) party. Šutaj Eštok added that shortly before the press conference the doctors told them the patient was in critical condition.

The ministers met the press in Banská Bystrica’s Teaching Hospital, where the F. D. Roosevelt Polyclinic is located. Fico was transported there by helicopter in the afternoon from Handlová, where the assassination attempt took place.

Šutaj Eštok and Slovak Health Minister Zuzana Dolinková both said the 59-year-old politician is in critical condition. The Televize Markíza and TA3 tv channels reported just before the press conference that Fico had undergone surgery, was in stable condition, and was communicating with those around him.

With regard to the assassination attempt itself, the Interior Ministry said that: “The initial information we have speaks to a clearly political motivation.” Slovak media have reported on a video circulating on social media related to the assassination attempt.

The media outlets say the footage purportedly shows the alleged attacker shortly after his arrest. The video shows a handcuffed older man sitting in a corridor who is similar to the man arrested at the scene of the shooting and who says he disagrees with Government policy, specifically, the attempt to institute changes to the public broadcast radio and television station RTVS.

It is not clear from the approximately 20-second recording who took it or how it was published. The Slovak Interior Minister announced that security will be strengthened for politicians, including opposition politicians, as well as for members of the media.

The Slovak Interior Minister also said that the hatred unleashed in Slovakia has become a tempest and that the country is on the brink of civil war.