Juraj Cintula, 71, has been identified by Solvankian media as the gunman who allegedly tried to assassinate Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico
A man accused of attempting to assassinate the Slovakian Prime Minister is said to be a writer who founded an “anti-violence” movement.
Juraj Cintula, 71, has been identified by Solvankian media as the gunman who allegedly tried to assassinate 59-year-old Robert Fico.
The politician was meeting a group of supporters in Handlova, north-east of Bratislava, when a gunman fired five shots at the PM at point-blank range. Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life.
Cintula is said to have founded an “anti-violence” movement in 2015 and claimed “every normal person rejects violence. Our goal is to unite people, preserve peace and restore democracy.
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“‘It is very difficult because no one trusts anyone anymore. The world is full of chaos and hatred.”
According to the group’s Facebook page, The Movement Against Violence, it describes itself as an “emerging political party whose goal is to prevent the spread of violence in society. To prevent war in Europe and the spread of hatred.”
Its last post is from April 2022, just weeks after the war in Ukraine, which appeared to be pro-Russia.
The group said: “What Slavic brotherhood? He is only the aggressor and the attacked.” Cintula is believed to be linked to a pro-Russian group after Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi discovered Facebook posts reportedly showing Cintula as a sympathiser of the pro-Russian paramilitary group.
Cintula appeared to criticse Fico for not cracking down on gambling in another post.
“In every city or village there is a slot machine on which gamblers masturbate for money borrowed from their whole family and acquaintances, it is tens of thousands of euros. What is the state doing about it?’ he wrote.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town.
Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course.
Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, a political rival of Fico, said Thursday that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm and “refuse violence.”
“We want to call on everyone to to be responsible,” Caputova said at a news conference in the capital Bratislava.