Andrej Danko, SNS chairman (source: TASR)
The reason given for the candidate's withdrawal was that his behaviour was in conflict with the statutes and ideals of the party.
“As of today he isn’t running for parliament for the SNS,” party chairman Andrej Danko told the TASR newswire. The SNS decided to take Patoprstý off the slate after information and photos appeared on the internet that reportedly link him to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.
One of the photos shows Patoprstý and his friends in a bathtub with his right hand raised, the Sme daily reported earlier that day.
Until recently, Patoprstý was one of the leading figures of Ultras Slovan Pressburg, a group of football hooligans from Bratislava, according to the blackblog.sk website. He was allegedly given a two-year suspended sentence in 2005 for bodily harm and banned from entering the Czech Republic, according to the blog. In addition, he was reportedly accused of disorderly conduct and inflicting bodily harm in Slovakia.
Patoprstý, aged 30, is the councillor for the Bratislava borough of Ružinov, and it is his first term in the post. He did not question the authenticity of the photographs for the aktuality.sk website but he claims to be neither extremist nor a neo-Nazi.
Some of the other political parties’ slates also include people with questionable links, Sme wrote.
