The person detained and suspected of shooting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been identified by local media. It would be Juraj Chintula, a 71-year-old Slovak writer, living in the town of Levice and politically left-wing.
“Come here, Robo!” This is the last sentence said by the attacker on Wednesday, May 15, before shooting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico four times following a meeting of the Slovak government in a cultural center in the city. by Handlova. The head of government, seriously injured in particular in the abdomen and head, was urgently hospitalized. The suspected shooter was arrested at the scene of the violent attack.
A politicized local writer
According to local media, the shooter is a certain Juraj Chintula, a 71-year-old Slovak writer, founder of a literary club in the town of Levice. The press adds that he is the author of several collections of poetry and that he is a member of the official association of Slovak writers. Still according to local media, the suspect is a supporter of the opposition party “Progressive Slovakia”. But this assertion was disputed by the party leader. “We unequivocally deny that he is a member of our movement. We strongly condemn his heinous act,” explained Michal Simecka, quoted by the Slovak daily Hospodarske Noviny.
In 2016, the suspect created a political movement “Hnutie proti nasiliu”. Which paradoxically means “Movement against violence” in Slovak. He also maintained a blog on which he wrote left-wing political columns where he regularly targeted the government of Robert Fico. “After all, it is not possible for 4% of rich deviants to manipulate the entire mass and they allow it without doing anything. This is immoral and abnormal! They say that honest people don’t go into politics,” he wrote. “What is the State, the party which bears the name social, doing against this? Nothing ! The State does not resolve begging by law,” we could also read.
The suspect here refers to the “SMER – social democracy” party chaired by Prime Minister Robert Fico. Originally social democratic when it was created in 1999, this political group evolved towards the right of the Slovak political spectrum, ultimately becoming a national right party, marked by its conservative and pro-Russian positions, and regularly accused of being “populist”. Before his return to power in 2023, Robert Fico had already been prime minister twice, from 2006 to 2010 then from 2012 to 2018.
No mobile identified
At this stage of the investigation, authorities have not confirmed the attacker’s motives. But in a video shared on social networks and cited by the former Slovak communist daily Pravda, the writer says he “does not agree with government policy” and complains of an “attack” of a local radio station, as well as a “dismissal” of a judge and former president of the Slovak Judicial Council. This is a direct reference to the policy pursued by Robert Fico’s government against the judicial institution, against a backdrop of suspicions of corruption by the Slovak leader.
Questioned by the Slovak media Aktuality, Juraj Chintula’s son reacted to the attack on the prime minister. “I have absolutely no idea what my father’s intentions were, what he planned, or why this happened,” he said. Asked about his father’s ties to the prime minister, he replied: “I’ll tell you, he didn’t vote for him. That’s all I can say about it.” “Yes, he legally had a gun in his possession, as he worked as a retired driver. But he has never expressed himself like this, sometimes he can comment on which government he does not like, but it is a shock,” he concluded.