BRATISLAVA: Slovak police said Thursday they charged Robert Fico, leader of the ruling populist party and a former prime minister, with incitement to racial hatred for publicly approving hate speech by a far-right lawmaker.
The police wrote on their Facebook page that Fico had been charged with “defamation of the nation, race and belief, incitement to national, racial and ethnic hatred and approval of a crime.”
In September, the eurozone member’s Supreme Court found far-right lawmaker Milan Mazurek guilty of hate speech for disparaging comments he made about the Roma minority on the radio in 2016. He lost his parliament seat as a result.
Days after the verdict, Fico said in a video message that “Milan Mazurek said what almost the entire nation thinks” adding that “should I be afraid to say that some Roma abuse our social system?”
The police said Fico faces up to five years in prison should he be found guilty as charged.
Even though the Supreme Court ruled that Mazurek’s comments were “a criminal offence and condemned him for them, Robert F. allegedly publicly agreed with the statements and thus spread the viewpoint across social media,“ the police added.
Fico was forced to resign last year, after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak — who was probing high-level corruption — triggered mass anti-government protests.
Fico remains the party leader and is widely seen as still pulling the strings.
Support for his party, the Smer-SD, has dropped to a historic low of around 20 percent, but it is still poised to win the 2020 general election. — AFP
