A 71-year-old loner, former coal miner – who wrote erotic poetry.
This is how the suspect who tried to assassinate Slovak President Robert Fico is described.
– It was only a matter of time before something happened, says the man’s former colleague to The New York Times.
It was on Wednesday that Slovak President Robert Fico was shot with several shots from close range after a government meeting in the town of Handlová. Fico’s condition is still described as “very serious” and he has undergone two operations.
A man was arrested immediately at the scene, and people who know the suspected shooter describe him as a “strange and angry” loner who wrote erotic poetry and whose resentments spanned the entire political playing field, reports The New York Times.
Wrote about erotica and Breivik
According to the newspaper, the 71-year-old former coal miner wrote dark, erotic verses and poems that contained torture and pain. He also self-published a book in which he attacked Roma and wondered why Slovakia did not have its own version of the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.
“Where is the Slovak Breivik? Has he not been born yet? And what if he has? I didn’t shoot anyone. I said to myself, I’m going to write a book,” the book says, according to The New York Times.
The former colleague knew immediately
When news broke that an unidentified man had shot Robert Fico in central Slovakia, it was clear to Milan Maruniak, a retired coal miner, who was responsible.
– I was 99 percent sure it was him. It couldn’t be anyone else, says the former colleague to the newspaper.
The New York Times writes that the assassination attempt on Robert Fico is the worst attack on a European leader in decades and that the event shook all of Europe. That the 71-year-old man was arrested and detained came as no surprise to Milan Maruniak.
– He was always so strange and angry. It was only a matter of time before something happened, he says.