Revealed: Pensioner poet, 71, accused of shooting Slovakian PM was filmed chanting ‘long live Ukraine!’ – after he gave up his steady life and book club to form anti-violence party when he was attacked at the supermarket by a drunk man

Alleged gunman Juraj Cintula, 71, is facing life in prison if convicted of the ‘lone wolf’, ‘politically motivated’ attack that rocked Europe.

Populist allies of Robert Fico have tried to seize on the shooting with calls to close the Liberal Party and crack down on the free media with some characterising the would-be assassin as a liberal.

But enquiries reveal the poet and retired security guard has a muddled political background having rallied against communism, migrants, and violence – with links to a pro-Russian militia.

Friends in Cintula’s hometown of Levice, western Slovakia, described him as ‘rebellious when he was young, but not aggressive’.

The grey-haired, bearded grandfather wrote poems while chairman of the Duha Literary Club in his hometown and published a racist book on ‘eyeless gypsies’ in 2015.

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