Re: One dead and two seriously injured after suspected neo-Nazi attacks, Flash News, November 7, 2005
The violence displayed by neo-Nazi thugs is, of course, very disturbing. However, I can't help wondering whether the violence towards foreigners is not sometimes fuelled by the Slovak authorities permitting hordes of drunken British louts to roam about the city centre chanting and behaving provocatively.
Last week, when Glasgow Rangers played Artmedia, the Rangers fans were determined to plant their Unionist flags all over the place in a way almost designed to provoke fellow neanderthals in Bratislava.
As a result, I was singled out on my way home by a thug just because he heard me speaking English. I received cuts and bruises to my face and body. As a consequence I have decided to leave Bratislava for good.
In all my time in Central Europe, in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, I haven't seen so much misery, despair and latent hostility as in Slovakia. Bratislava can be both brutal and bleak.
Bratislava, Slovakia
14. Nov 2005 at 0:00
