The terrorist attack outside Tepláreň
Fatal shots outside a queer bar in Bratislava: investigators later called it terrorism.
On the evening of 12 October 2022, shots rang out in Zámocká Street below Bratislava Castle. A nineteen-year-old student had been waiting outside Tepláreň, one of the few queer bars in the Slovak capital. He shot dead two young guests and wounded a waitress in the leg. He did not know the people he shot.
Shortly before, the perpetrator had published a lengthy manifesto full of antisemitism, racism and hatred of queer people. According to researchers at the Center for Research on Extremism in Oslo, he had first looked for Jewish targets before choosing the bar. Afterwards he boasted about the crime online. The next morning, police found him dead; he had taken his own life. Investigators later classified the attack as an act of terrorism.
For the queer community, the attack was not an entirely unexpected outbreak of violence. The bar's owner, Roman Samotný, spoke of years of hostility and of fearing just such an attack. Only a week earlier, parliament had voted on a ban on the rainbow flag on state buildings. The proposal failed, but more than fifty members present had not taken part in the vote at all.
Two days after the attack, thousands of people took to the streets in Bratislava. President Zuzana Čaputová publicly apologised that queer people could not feel safe in their own country. She called on politicians to stand up to hatred.
Political change, however, largely failed to materialise. Just a week later, parliament rejected a proposal to introduce registered partnerships. At the time, Slovakia was one of six EU states where same-sex couples were denied this option. The attack on Tepláreň is a reminder of the consequences that hatred and incitement can have.