Daniel Bombic (right) with his attorney David Lindtner. (source: SME - JAKUBČO)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Daniel Bombic, who is facing prosecution on extremism charges, has appeared alongside numerous Smer politicians. More than 100,000 people protested against the government – again. Fico left a EU summit in Brussels prematurely, and is grappling with a wobbly coalition at home.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
Smer nourishes the fame of an infamous thug
He is an unapologetic anti-Semite who counts neo-Nazis among his closest associates and is being prosecuted on charges of dangerous extremism. He is famous among the – sadly, numerous – consumers of disinformation content in Slovakia, and has conducted friendly online chats with some of the highest-ranking officials in the government, including Prime Minister Robert Fico himself. And now, after being extradited to Slovakia, he is free to walk the streets of Bratislava.
Daniel Bombic, a middle-aged Slovak who has Silicon Valley’s free-speech-obsessed oligarchs and the rise of anti-vax movement during the pandemic to thank for his online popularity, has spent practically all his adult life in the UK but now faces prosecution for a number of crimes here in Slovakia. Last week, he was finally extradited to face trial more than two years after being detained in London based on international arrest warrants issued by Slovakia.
The reason why his story cannot be ignored is that, as well as showing how social media can turn a violent loudmouth with a microphone into a celebrity, it says something about the twisted mental world within which Slovakia’s ruling politicians operate.
