The Godfather, Are Some Men Taking It Too Far? How The Chief Of Slovak Intelligence Services’ Tattoo Opens A Tumultuous Debate

Late last month, the director of the Slovak Intelligence Service, Pavol Gašpar, was involved in a car accident that left a 14-year-old girl injured at the scene. The incident not only raised concerns about his driving but also cast a spotlight on Gašpar's apparent fondness for high-speed sports cars and, intriguingly, his admiration for The Godfather.

Over the end of August weekend, on Saturday, a yellow sports car veered off the road and onto a nearby lawn. It appears the driver lost control of the steering wheel and, rather than causing a collision, ended up drifting off the road. The vehicle, a yellow luxurious Dodge Challenger, was being driven by the chief of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS).

Since then, Slovakia’s political scene has been in turmoil. Opposition leader Michal Šimečka publicly criticised Gašpar’s conduct and called for his resignation, stating: “The strictest criteria must apply to the director of the SIS. Mr. Gašpar doesn’t meet them by any stretch.” Meanwhile, a more sympathetic, familial defence even, came from ruling party MP Tibor Gašpar, Pavol’s father.

So who is this seemingly cleaving person? First, we have to unfold some family business. As Pavol Gašpar was appointed as the head of the SIS last year, he was not Prime Minister Fico’s first choice. The position was originally expected to go to his father, Tibor Gašpar, who had previously served as the national police chief for over five years (2012–2018), and was seen as the natural successor. The father’s surroundings however, as well as his charges in the "Očistec" case, were not quite polished. Indeed, the Očistec (Purgatory) case is about the abuse of the police force for political and private purposes. According to the indictment, officers either deliberately failed to investigate certain cases, or, on the contrary, extorted suspicious businessmen and accepted regular payouts in return.

And as for his familial ties…they were somehow questionable. By marriage, he became a part of the oligarch and the owner of the Nitra-based security company Bonul, Miroslav Bödör’s family as his brother-in-law. Already in an article published in April 2017, journalist Ján Kuciak drew attention to companies linked to Bödör’s son, Norbert, which had received state contracts and subsidies worth several million euros. For this reason, following Kuciak’s murder, participants in the For a Decent Slovakia protests called for Gašpar’s resignation as police chief in March 2018. 

Nonetheless, his father’s achievements seemed to appeal to Pavol, as he wears his likeness perpetually on himself. A portrait of his father’s face dominates his left arm. Well, what link to the Godfather you’d might ask. We’re coming to it. “The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other”, as said Don Vito Corleone.

In the opening scene of the legendary film series The Godfather, the owner of a funeral home, Amerigo Bonasera, comes to the head of the mafia family, Vito Corleone, to complain that his daughter has been beaten. From the Don, that is, Corleone, he asks for the perpetrators to be killed. In the room with them, silently listening to the conversation, is another man: the Don’s advisor, the consigliere as they say, Tom Hagen.

Although Tom Hagen is not a member of the family, he is one of the central characters in Francis Ford Coppola’s film and in the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo. Hagen is present at most of the family gang’s meetings, and the family is known for “making offers that can't be refused.” Let’s return to the opening scene. Just a few minutes after the funeral director complains to Don Corleone, the always discreet consigliere brings the family’s hitman, Luca Brasi, into the office. And Don Corleone instructs him to have the mafia family's “soldiers” avenge the daughter.

On Tibor Gašpar’s left arm, it is the face of  Tom Hagen  behind a fence that we see. So is the tattoo with the likeness of Tom Hagen that problematic on the arm of the chief of the intelligence service? Does one’s family ties and a movie define a person? Or is one to be free to have one’s own heroes, whomever they might be? Well… some people have different status. As a chief of the SIS, some responsibilities should be accepted and born. 

Behind the debate on the tattoo is the criticism of an elite that doesn’t even try to hide their disregard for laws. Pavol Gašpar was driving fast and made a mockery of the solid white line. His yellow dodge, which he has claimed after the crash was bought with his legal and declared sources of income, was not even in his tax returns, as the Slovak Foundation Stop Corruption has warned. 

Now, the director of the Slovak Information Service, Pavol Gašpar, faces suspicions that he violated the constitutional law on conflicts of interest at least twice. Consequently, the Stop Corruption Foundation has filed a formal complaint with the Committee on the Incompatibility of Functions of the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

This curious case of Pavol Gašpar doesn’t end with a high-speed car crash. It exposes, as a perfect storm, deeper fissures in Slovakia's political foundations. This curtain has, again, been drawn back on a web of family ties and symbols that blur the line between loyalty and lawlessness. As head of the Slovak Intelligence Service, Gašpar holds a role that demands the utmost integrity, transparency, and fostering of public trust. Yet his actions, both on and off the road, signal a tremendous disregard for these duties. In a democracy, power must be accountable. And in this case, the symbols of loyalty and strength captured by The Godfather should not be allowed to overshadow the values of responsibility and rule of law.

Image: Flickr/Matúš Benian

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