The man who tried to assassinate Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, is a government critic and poet who once founded a campaign group against violence, it has emerged.
The suspect was named in local media reports on Wednesday night as Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old resident of Levice in western Slovakia.
Mr Cintula, who is the author of three poetry collections and two books, is listed as one of the founders of the Dúha literary club, in which he has been active since 2005.
In 2015, he founded the campaign group Against Violence, and had sought to get it officially registered in Slovakia.
“Violence is often a reaction of people, as a form of expression of ordinary dissatisfaction with the state of affairs. Let’s be dissatisfied, but not violent,” a petition circulated by Mr Cintula states.
The movement had called on people to stand against violence of all kinds, from “martial law to domestic physical or psychological violence,” as well as violence on the international stage, in Europe, “in which militarisation, extremism, neo-Nazism, anarchy are growing”.
Mr Cintula regularly published contributions to his literary club, including one where he railed against “rich deviants” in Slovak society who he said were poisoning public debate.
“This fraction, the percentage, must not determine the pathogenic value system of the masses. It is immoral and abnormal! They say that decent people don’t go into politics,” he wrote.
In another post, he criticised the Fico government for not cracking down on gambling. “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.
The suspect’s political leanings appear to have shifted over time. In 2016, he appeared in a photograph with the Slovak Soldiers, a far-Right, Pro-Russian association.
But in a post for the Movement Against Violence in 2022 he condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A friend from Levice told Markiza TV that they had debates about politics. “I’m more for Russia,” they said. “He had different opinions.”
Mr Cintula is reported to have shot Mr Fico with a weapon which he owned illegally.
He was the subject of media attention in 2016 when it was reported that he was attacked while working for a private security firm in a department store in Levice.
He was assaulted by a younger man, apparently under the influence of drugs. Markiza TV reported he suffered injuries all over his body and could not work for a long time.
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