From 15-17 December 2022, a delegation of the Civil Liberties Committee will be in Bratislava, following the hate crime and terrorist attack that killed two individuals.
On 12 October 2022, 19-year-old Juraj Krajčík headed to Tepláreň, one of Bratislava’s few LGBTIQ+ bars, and shot indiscriminately, killing two people, Matúš Horváth and Juraj Vankulič, and injuring another. Earlier that day, he had published a far-right manifesto online. He was found dead the following day, having committed suicide. The attack was declared an anti- LGBTIQ+ hate crime and, as of 17 October 2022, a terrorist attack. The shooting is currently still under investigation and under a news embargo.
The MEPs will arrive in Slovakia in the evening of Thursday 15 December, after the end of the plenary session in Strasbourg. During a full day of meetings on Friday 16 December, they aim to take stock of the relevant legal and political framework, and discuss concrete steps in the fight against hate in the country.
The delegation is set to meet with Prime Minister Eduard Heger and several ministers in dedicated meetings, as well as the Prosecutor’s Office, high-level representatives of law enforcement, and NGOs and journalists. National parliamentarians have been invited to meet with the delegation too. MEPs will also go the bar where the shooting took place.
Members of the delegation
- Sophie IN ‘T VELD (RE, NL) – Chair of the delegation
- Vladimír BILČÍK (EPP, SK)
- Elena YONCHEVA (S&D, BG)
Press conference in Bratislava
A press conference with the Chair of the EP delegation is scheduled for 17.00 (local time) on Friday 16 December in the European Parliament Liaison Office in Bratislava, without remote participation. Details on how to attend or follow it live will be communicated closer to the date.
In Slovakia, marriage is constitutionally defined as a union between one man and one woman, and there is no same-sex marriage or civil partnership. In recent years, multiple anti- LGBTIQ+ legislative proposals have been tabled. Only 31% of Slovaks agree that LGBTIQ+ individuals should have the same rights as heterosexual people. This is the lowest share in the EU and it has actually fallen by 5% since 2015. On a wider scale, the 2022 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Report noted that in the EU, hate speech has been on the rise, and that some EU countries have increasingly backslidden on the rights of LGBTIQ+ people.
The Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group (DRFMG) has been closely monitoring the situation in Slovakia since the February 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová. Several EP delegations have travelled to Slovakia and exchanges of views have also been held in Brussels since. A first delegation, organised jointly by the Civil Liberties and Budgetary Control committees, visited Slovakia in March 2018. A visit of the Civil Liberties Committee followed in September, as part of a delegation which also covered Malta, and in December 2018, MEPs from the Committee on Budgetary Control travelled to the country. MEPs from the Civil Liberties committee last visited Slovakia in September 2021 and held an exchange of views with the authorities in April 2022.
