Splattered with blood, they offer a glimpse into the tortured soul of a would-be assassin. The poems and writings of alleged gunman Juraj Cintula suggest a deeply disturbed psyche – though not necessarily a madman.
When the pensioner appeared in court accused of attempting to assassinate the Slovak prime minister, The Mail on Sunday was given exclusive access to his literary works.
The extensive collection reveals Cintula’s thoughts on topics ranging from the state of his country to pornographic fantasies.
At first glance, much of it seems like political gibberish. But after the 71-year-old reportedly voiced his frustrations over last Wednesday’s violent attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico, they could be seen in a sinister new light.
The cover of his 2010 novel Posolstvo Obete, which translates as The Message of a Victim, depicts banknotes splattered with blood. The 141-page story contains impenetrable prose about a murder during the Soviet era. Cintula lived half his life under communism in Czechoslovakia, before the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
The pensioner (pictured center) appeared in court accused of attempting to assassinate the Slovak Prime Minister. The Mail on Sunday was given exclusive access to his literary works
The poems and writings of alleged gunman Juraj Cintula (pictured) suggest a deeply disturbed psyche – although not necessarily a madman
The cover of his 2010 novel Posolstvo Obete, which translates as The Message of a Victim, depicts banknotes splattered with blood. The 141-page story contains impenetrable prose about a murder during the Soviet era
Another section, featuring a pornographic illustration of a naked dominatrix holding a dead bird by the neck, will no doubt keep psychiatrists entertained for hours
Another section, featuring a pornographic illustration of a naked dominatrix holding a dead bird by the neck, will no doubt keep psychiatrists entertained for hours.
This 2007 book is titled Diptych, or Double Painting, with the subtitles Bitkarova Bolest – Pain Of A Fighter – and Erotika. Does this book have a double meaning and does it offer any insight into what happened last week? At the library in Cintula’s hometown of Levice, where the books were unveiled to the MoS, academic Anna Medzihradska shrugged. She said, “I’ve read them all. And I’ve talked to their author many times. I honestly don’t know what they mean.’
For years, she, Cintula and about thirty other members of the Rainbow Literary Club met over tea and cookies in the wood-paneled library. The members are avid readers and authors, with varying degrees of success.
Before the revolution, Cintula – who, according to his library text, wrote his first Romantic poem at the age of 17 – was unable to publish any of his critical writings.
But while some of his troubled works baffle rather than inform, there can be little doubt that his anthology Dream Of A Rebel drips with rage and revolutionary fervor. The lines of one poem seem prophetic: ‘In my dreams the police were looking for me… I dreamed of riots… they beat me… people condemned me… I no longer cry for shackles, I will cry for the dead.’
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (photo) is fighting for his life in hospital after an assassination attempt on Wednesday
The Velvet Revolution of November 1989 marked the end of four decades of Czechoslovaks enduring the miserable yoke of Soviet communism
Juraj Cintula, 71, is a writer and founder of a literary club. His son told local media: ‘I have no idea what father was up to, what he was up to, why it happened. Maybe there was a short circuit
Image depicting the events following the shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico
Security rushed to tackle the gunman, 71-year-old Juraj Cintula from Levice, to the ground
The shooter is reportedly 71-year-old Juraj Cintula who was arrested at the scene
The prime minister was shot in Handlova, northeast of Bratislava, in the central European country
After the assassination attempt, Cintula was seen calmly answering questions at a police station, with a bruise on his forehead and stating that he “disagreed with the government’s policies.”
The married father of two irritated his fellow book club members by talking endlessly about politics, and eventually stopped visiting the books in 2019. Slovak author Janka Bernathova is said to have told Cintula, “Juraj, open those clenched fists, let them go and accept God through prayer. And then he said to me, ‘God has taken my brother from me.’ He had a twin brother who died when he was just a teenager.”
Whether he followed her advice or not, Cintula turned to a far-right group, Slovenski Branci. They saw him standing next to their paramilitary members and he apparently tried to recite some of his poetry. Group member Peter Svrek recalled that Cintula left after half an hour and never attended another event.
However, he seemed increasingly desperate for his voice to be heard. Since advocating for trade union rights as a miner in Handlova in the 1980s – risking the wrath of the Czech state, whose notorious secret police, the StB, kept a file on him – he has spoken out against corruption for decades.
After divisive and pro-Putin Prime Minister Robert Fico won a fourth term last September, Cintula’s anger mushroomed. Outside government meetings he could encounter swear words.
For those who know him, last week’s events were the culmination of a lifetime of bitterness among the political elite and their failure to build a just society after the fall of communism. Whether his mind is irrational or simply tortured remains to be seen.