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Racist 

Violence in

Slovakia

By Matej Pavlik

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Published by the European Network against Racism (ENAR) in Brussels, March2011, with the support of the Community Programme for Employment and SocialSolidarity - PROGRESS (2007-2013) and the Open Society Foundations.

PROGRESS (2007- 2013) is managed by the Directorate-General for

Employment, social affairs and equal opportunities of the European Commission.It was established to financially support the implementation of the objectives ofthe European Union in the employment and social affairs area, as set out in theSocial Agenda, and thereby contribute to the achievement of the Lisbon Strategygoals in these fields. For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/progress. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect theposition or opinion of the European Commission.

ENAR reserves the right not to be responsible for the accuracy, completeness orquality of the information provided in this report. Liability claims regardingdamage caused by the use of any information provided, including any information

which is incomplete or incorrect, will therefore be rejected.

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An assessment of overall trends and patterns

In general, racist violence and hate crimes are primarily aimed against the Romacommunity and alternative youth. Racist violence against migrants does not occur in

noticeable amounts. This is due to the fact that the Slovak Republic is considered atransit country by migrants rather than their final destination (mainly countries inWestern Europe). Thus, migrants and religious minorities are secondary targets of racialviolence. However, the number of racist attacks on migrants1 and religiously motivatedattacks with an anti-Semitic background2 has increased. Far right movements are thebiggest potential source of racist attacks and these organizations are gaining popularityand thus have more members and supporters. The Slovak republic is heavily influencedby trends and developments that take place in western countries most notably inGermany and the Czech Republic. These developments help create the atmosphereunder which far right movements can be established into legally and constitutionallyvalid groups. (For example the Slovenské hnutie obrody (SHO) [the Slovak

Renaissance Movement (SRM)], the Slovenská národná jednota [the Slovak NationalUnity (SNU)]), have all been established and publically operate even though theiractivities at times violates the Slovak Penal Code Other extreme nationalist groups havebeen established such as the (Nové slobodné Slovensko (NSS) [New Free Slovakia(NFS)], the Slovenská pospolitosť (SP) [Slovak Togetherness (ST)]), but are withoutany official institution. Finally there are the so called autonomous movements(Autonómni nacionalisti (AN) [Autonomous Nationalists (AN), Národný odpor (NO)[National Resistance (NR)]) who also have far right aims and objectives.

Football hooligans and ultras3 form an independent far right group operating in theSlovak Republic. Many football clubs in the highest Slovak football league are almost

exclusively supported by groups with far right ideas (hooligans of Slovan Bratislava,Spartak Trnava, Nitra, Košice, Prešov, Žilina). However, these radical footballsupporters do not form a uniform group and are not only composed of neo-Nazis. Otherindividuals in these groups tend to act apolitically, but they usually support racistbehaviour during matches. A comprehensive summary on the development in far rightexpressions in football is being issued annually since 20074.

1Slovak News Agency: A racist attacked a British doctor with dark skin complexion,  

http://aktualne.centrum.sk/domov/zdravie-skolstvo-spolocnost/clanek.phtml?id=1156994 accessed 15 July 2010 and Mikuláš Jesenský: Racists attacked a female basketball player,http://www.sme.sk/c/3817838/rasistinapadli-basketbalistku.html accessed 15 July 2010.2

TV JOJ: Sixteen hooligans arrested, seven police officers injured , http://noviny.joj.sk/z-domovabratislavsky-kraj/16-

10-2008/clanok/sestnast-chuliganov-zatkli-sedem%20policajtov-sa-zranilo.html3  ‘Ultras’ are a form of sports team supporters renowned for their fanatical support and elaborate displays. The

behavioural tendency of ultras groups includes the use of flares, vocal support in large groups, defiance of theauthorities and the display of banners at football stadiums, which are used to create an atmosphere which intimidatesopposing players and supporters, as well as encouraging their own team. The actions of ultra fan groups canoccasionally be overly extreme and are sometimes influenced by racial violence,  political ideologies, cross-townderbies between clubs from the same city, and even from poor performances by the teams.4

Pavlík, Matej, Ultras 2007  (Bratislava: Enough, People against Racism, 2008) http://www.rasizmus.sk/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ULTRAS2007.pdf and People Against Racism, Report on manifestations of racism, anti- Semitism, nationalism, neo-Naziism and other types of intolerance on football stadiums  (Bratislava: People AgainstRacism, 2010) http://futbal.rasizmus.sk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Sprava%20futbal%202008%202009.pdf 

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During 2008 and 2009, the highest growth has been seen in autonomous ‘leaderlessresistance’ movements, mainly the Autonomous Nationalists. During this period, the ANmanaged to multiply their membership several times over. (AN Košice, Juhozápad,Sever, etc).

Alongside this increase of autonomous movements which has weakened in 2010, rightwing groups have attempted to enter mainstream politics. This began in August 2009when the Slovenská Pospolitosť party began organising many protest activities withopen anti-Roma Rhetoric. This led to an attempt by Marián Kotleba, the former leader ofthe Slovak Togetherness, entering municipal politics. After his failure he attempted toregister a new political party Naše Slovensko (NS) [Our Slovakia (OS)]. After severaladministration holdups, several activists around Marian Kotleba entered a registered butidle party Strana priateľov vína (SPV-G3000) [Wine Friends Party (WFP-G3000)] andchanged its name to Ľudová Strana – Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS) [Peoples Party – OurSlovakia (PP-OS)]. This new political party carried out a series of anti-Roma protests as

a pre-election campaign.

Further evidence of a growing racist agenda throughout society has also been the anti-Roma campaign of the nationalist Slovenská národná strana (SNS) [Slovak NationalParty (SNP)], a member of the government coalition during the election period 2006  – 2010. In its campaign, SNP used stereotyping racist motives  – a digitally altered photoof a man of Roma origin and added tattoos and a large golden chain. The picture wasentitled ‘so that we will not have to feed those who do not want to work’ 5. Racistrhetoric, such as referring to these communities as ’gypsy parasites’ has mainly beenpresented by the PPOS.

Official statistics of the Slovak Republic Police Forces Presidium in 2009 shows adecrease of racist crimes from 213 in 2008 to 132 in 2009, i.e. 38.01%. There were 16recorded cases of violent crimes with a racist motive6. According to representatives ofthe NGO sector, this statistic does not reflect the reality of racially motivated crimes.Fieldwork carried out by the civic associations People Against Racism and Enoughshows a long-term and growing distrust towards state prosecution institutions and evena reluctance to anonymously report attacks with a racist or hate motive to an NGO. Thisdistrust can also be seen amongst the members of the NGO sector and is mainlycaused by fear of revenge from the perpetrator or an unjust legal process.

Furthermore, migrants and members of the Roma community often lack legalknowledge regarding what options are open to them after an attack as well as theirrights and obligations. This often results in the dismissal of the incident. Regardingattacks against antifascists, the there is a general lack of trust towards the police whichalso leads to underreporting incidents.

5 Kováčová, Marina, SNP lures voters on racism, http://volby.sme.sk/c/5360060/sns-laka-volicov-narasizmus.

html, accessed 15 July 2010.6Danilov, Sergej, Statistics on criminal offences with racist motives, http://danilov.blog.sme.sk/c/221366/Statistika-

trestnej-cinnosti-s-rasovym-motivom-2009.html, accessed 15 July 2010.

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A new development in the Slovak Republic is the use of hate and racist expressions onthe internet. Openly neo-Nazi websites with materials directly connected to themovements only represent the tip of the iceberg. Far right movements use varioussophisticated media portals such as websites, blogs and different social networking

services. The portfolio includes main stream web sites with an emphasis on patriotism,blogs with conspiracy theories (New World Order, 9/11, etc.), neo-Nazi websites with‘lifestyle’ content for far right activists (e.g. NS straight edge, hate core music, NS blackbloc, NS street art, etc.) and direct information channels which publicly announceupcoming events in the Slovak Republic and abroad7.

This tendency of moving hate-speech from the streets to the internet is alsodocumented by a statement of Irena Bihariová, a lawyer with PAR commenting on thetypical profile of a racist for the Slovak News Agency: ’Instead of a baseball bat, he usesa keyboard and internet. His activity is spreading his ideas on the network, while heoften falsely hides his ideas under the concepts of patriotism, and the fight against

parasites for decent Slovaks’

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Typical case study 

This case is a typical example of an attack by neo-Nazis against a foreigner. Suchattacks are most common in Bratislava and Košice, which are the largest cities in theSlovak Republic with the highest number of migrants.

The victim was a male aged between 25 and 30 and of dark skin complexion. In theafternoon, he and his girlfriend entered a tram in Bratislava, where he lives with his

Slovak partner. The tram was half empty and as he saw a group of neo-Nazis, he satdown and tried not to draw attention to himself. The group however started to shout athim in an abusive manner. The victim decided to get off the tram at the next stop. Whilehe was getting off, one of the neo-Nazis spat on his back and the group got off the tramas well. They stood around the victim, trying to hit him, while the victim managed to hitthe mouth of one of the perpetrators in self-defence. A police patrol arrived unusuallyquickly, before the incident evolved into a fight. The policemen took the identification ofthe victim and one witness (only one witness agreed). Afterwards the perpetrators weretaken to the police station. Further information on this case is not available, as thepartner of the victim only provided a brief description of the attack.

The victim identified the perpetrators as a group of four men  –  supporters of ‘SlovanPressburg’ (USP – Ultras Slovan Pressburg, a far right hooligan group). All of themwere of white complexion and spoke Slovak. The victim did not suffer any injuries, asthe police came immediately. The victim has been informed (through his partner who

7  Aryan Rebel , ‘Genocida v J AR.čaká to aj Europu ’  http://aryanrebel.wordpress.com, accessed 15 July 2010

8Slovak News Agency: Todays racists attack on the internet, rather than with a baseball bat 

http://www.aktuality.sk/clanok/167621/dnesni-rasisti-namiesto-bejzbalky-utocia-na-internete/ , accessed 15 July 2010

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contacted us) that the case is being investigated ex offo and that the victim has therights of a witness and a victim and even in case the police would not call him to providea testimony, he has the right to do so and ask for information on any proceedings of thecase and propose evidence.

Recommendations

The legislation at present is adequate to combat racist violence but it is not beingapplied correctly. Furthermore the definitions contained therein are vague andlead to different interpretations. This is compounded by the fact that there are nointerpretation materials such as an explanatory note on the legislation (oracademic articles). This absence leads to a subjective or a misinterpretation ofthe provision. Therefore there should be an explanatory note made available andit should be used and applied more often by the relevant authorities.

There is no group of experts that could provide quality and professional opinionson each legal case in the area of racially motivated crimes. Furthermore, there isa lack of cooperation between NGOs and state institutions that both havedifferent areas of expertise. Therefore there should be a group of expertsestablished to provide assistance when needed and there should be closercooperation between NGOs and state institutions.

The police should employ an adequate number of professional operatives, whocould expertly review violations of the penal code or properly investigatehate/racist motives in violent attacks.

Finally, there should me more resources on hand to assist victims of racistviolence.

Bibliography

Slovak News Agency , 11 July 2010, ‘ĽPR: Rómom zakazujú najmä vstup doreštaurácii’, http://www.comein.sk/aktuality/39148/LPR:-Romom-zakazuju-najma-vstup-do-restauracii/, accessed 15 July 2010

Slovak News Agency , 25 April 2008; ‘Rasista napadol britského doktora tmavej pleti’ http://aktualne.centrum.sk/domov/zdravie-skolstvo-spolocnost/clanek.phtml?id=1156994 , accessed 15 July 2010 and Mikuláš Jesenský:SME, 9 April 2008, ‘Rasisti napadli basketbalistku’ 

http://www.sme.sk/c/3817838/rasistinapadli-basketbalistku.html accessed 15 July 2010. TV JOJ’ : Sixteen hooligans arrested, seven police officers injured, http://noviny.joj.sk/z-domovabratislavsky-kraj/16-10-2008/clanok/sestnast-chuliganov-zatkli-sedem%20policajtov-sa-zranilo.html  

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Pavlík, Matej, Ultras 2007  (Bratislava: Enough, People against Racism, 2008)http://www.rasizmus.sk/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ULTRAS2007.pdf and People Against Racism , ‘Report on manifestations of racism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, neo-Naziism and other types of intolerance on football stadiums’ (Bratislava: People Against

Racism, 2010) http://futbal.rasizmus.sk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Sprava%20futbal%202008%202009.pdf  

Kováčová, Marina, SNP lures voters on racism, http://volby.sme.sk/c/5360060/sns-laka-volicov-narasizmus.html, accessed 15 July 2010.

Danilov, Sergej, Statistics on criminal offences with racist motives,http://danilov.blog.sme.sk/c/221366/Statistika-trestnej-cinnosti-s-rasovym-motivom-2009.html, accessed 15 July 2010.

Aryan rebel, http://aryanrebel.wordpress.com, accessed 15 July 2010

Slovak News Agency: Todays racists attack on the internet, rather than with a baseball bat, http://www.aktuality.sk/clanok/167621/dnesni-rasisti-namiesto-bejzbalky-utocia-na-internete/  , accessed 15 July 2010 

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Annex 1

Recording incidents of racist violenceThere are three relevant statistic data sources in the Slovak Republic. The first one is

the official statistics of the Ministerstvo Vnútra Slovenskej Republiky (MV SR) [Ministryof Interior of the Slovak Republic (MI SR)], which only addresses proven criminaloffences. The second source is the report of the Slovenské národné stredisko preľudksé práva (SNSĽP) [Slovak Human Rights Centre (SHRC)], which primarily focuseson discrimination and violent racist motivated crimes. This is done by way of mediamonitoring (i.e. only gathers all media coverage on this issue). Victims are encouragedto contact the SHRC if they believe they were discriminated against. The third source isthe statistics of the People Against Racism, which is the only organistation to addressviolent crimes with a hate motive. Persons can contact People Against Racism if theyare victims of violent attacks.

However it is necessary to point out that the only NGO that monitor racist incidents isĽudia proti rasizmu (ĽPR) [People Against Racism (PAR)]. PAR has been providing freelegal aid to victims of racially motivated crimes since 2001.9 

9  Slovak News Agency , 11 July 2010, ‘ĽPR: Rómom zakazujú najmä vstup do reštaurácii’:  

http://www.comein.sk/aktuality/39148/LPR:-Romom-zakazuju-najma-vstup-do-restauracii/ , accessed 15 July 2010.