A new case of brutal Roma violence occurred in recent days in Mihovica near Šentjernej, in which Andrej Brečko suffered a serious head injury that had to be treated in the Novo mesto emergency room. He attributes the attack to the fact that he had spoken about the Roma problem to a Slovenian media outlet the previous day, and believes that that is the reason why some members of the Roma community had retaliated violently against him.
“It looks like I was slaughtering a pig, the police came immediately, and then an ambulance came and took me to the emergency room in Novo mesto, where I was treated. I’m already home with a few stitches on my head, feeling good despite a sleepless night and quite a bit of blood loss,” Andrej Brečko wrote on Facebook.
According to his public post on Facebook, the family was asleep when they were woken up by a dog and the crack of broken glass at around 2.30 a.m. When Brečko checked what was causing the noise, he noticed a masked person, the “villain”, who had already managed to escape over the fence. Then the attack took place. “As I approached the fence, two of them attacked me with sticks, and one hit me on the head, causing a violent wound,” he writes.
He also revealed that this is the second “vandal” attack on their property and car in a week. This time, problematic individuals in the Roma community allegedly broke one of the windows of their greenhouse.
Motive: They wanted revenge
According to him, the motive for the attack was revenge for his media exposure. He spoke to the media outlet Dolenjski list about the attack last Friday night, when Roma thugs damaged a greenhouse, a fence next to an apartment building, trees and a car. They punctured all the tyres on the car, smashed the windscreen and damaged the bodywork. Brečko, one of the most prominent members of the Šentjernej People’s Initiative, does not understand why all this is happening. He is convinced that his Roma neighbours are behind it all, and has security camera footage to prove it.
Many people have posted messages under his post, wishing him a speedy recovery, some have called on him to defend himself, and some have pointed out the ineffectiveness of the state.
Anja Bah Žibert, an MP of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), has also responded to Brečko’s post, writing: “It has been a week since the meeting of the Commission on Human Rights and Golob’s promise in Ribnica that action would be taken regarding the Roma violence. Andrej Brečko, whose car and property were damaged immediately afterwards, was brutally beaten last night. To the Golob government, you are responsible! You are solely responsible! Enough!”
Poklukar says security romance no longer exists
On Friday, Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said at a ceremony marking Police Day that there is no longer any security “romance” in Slovenia. “Our key objective is to continue to maintain a high level of security in Slovenia and to increase our resilience to new forms of security risks and threats,” the Minister said. Poklukar, along with other government representatives, has been heavily criticised in the past for not doing enough to curb the Roma problem. The latest attack is far from the only one – just a few days ago, we reported on a Roma attack on the Mayor of Ribnica, Samo Pogorelc, who also needed medical attention.
We have sent a list of press questions to the police regarding the latest incident.
Ž. K.
