A couple is pictured at this year's Rainbow Pride in Bratislava on July 20, 2024. (source: SITA)
The Czech police have apprehended a minor suspected of plotting an armed attack on the Rainbow Pride event in Bratislava, which drew thousands on July 20.
The arrest, first reported by Czech news outlet Voxpot, helped expose a disturbing network of young radicals connected via Telegram, a social media platform founded by Russian siblings. The group, which included several hundred - and often underage - members from across the globe, was co-founded by a Slovak national and the underage suspect from Moravia, Czech Republic.
As Voxpot reports, extremists from the EU, the United States, and Russia were utilising this Telegram channel to plan attacks not only on LGBT+ communities but also on other minorities, including Muslims and migrants.
Two days before planned attack
Just two days before the planned Pride event in the Slovak capital, Slovak authorities disclosed that they had dismantled a dangerous extremist cell, averting what could have been a catastrophic attack.
“These channels were a breeding ground for neo-Nazi symbolism, hate speech, and calls for violence or terrorist acts against minorities,” the Slovak police stated on July 18.
A source involved in the investigation described the situation as “extremely critical”, highlighting the imminent danger. The Telegram group reportedly contained Russian-language materials offering instructions on weapons-making. The arrested Czech youth allegedly intended to produce these weapons, though it remains uncertain whether he had begun the process.
Now facing severe charges, including the promotion of movements aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms, as well as supporting terrorism, the young man could be looking at a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
Far-right extremism as a European problem
This foiled plan to attack the queer event comes less than two years after a tragic incident in Bratislava, where a 19-year-old gunman killed two queer individuals, Matúš Horváth and Juraj Vankulič, outside a local bar before taking his own life.
Voxpot’s story sheds light on Slovakia’s troubling status as a hub for far-right and neo-Nazi online communities. Figures like Pavol Beňadik, known by the pseudonym ‘Slovakbro’, have been instrumental in spreading extremist ideology, including a self-radicalisation manual.
This alarming rise of far-right extremism is not confined to Slovakia.
On July 26, the European Union took the unprecedented step of designating the international neo-Nazi group The Base as a terrorist organisation. As the first far-right entity to make the EU’s terrorist list, The Base views immigration, sexual diversity, interracial relationships, and declining birth rates as existential threats to the white race, aiming to exploit existing societal crises and conflicts to hasten societal collapse, with the hope of establishing a new world order.
