“We understand that this country’s political leadership can’t imagine that anyone could act freely and independently without some kind of personal gain,” Maštalír said.
The protest rallies, which happened simultaneously in more than 30 Slovak towns, were organized by the “Slovakia is Europe” NGO in response to a sharp foreign policy turn toward Moscow by Fico’s government since it took office in October 2023. In addition to their demands for good governance and a more transparent foreign policy, the organizers called on Fico to resign.
Fico, who was a member of the Communist Party in the former Czechoslovakia and is serving his fourth term as Slovak leader, on Dec. 22 met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in a rare visit to the Russian capital by a European leader since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. Fico has also ended Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, and has campaigned against EU sanctions on Russia.
An MP from Fico’s Smer (Direction) party, Tibor Gašpár, told the STVR public broadcaster on Jan. 17 that “the door must remain open to a situation when we might eventually consider such a drastic solution as leaving the EU.”
Such sentiments, until recently unthinkable from mainstream politicians in the country, have galvanized liberal and Westward-leaning Slovaks.
In Prešov in eastern Slovakia, some 100 kilometers from the Ukraine border, Eva Kulová, 84, told a crowd of 7,000 that “the specter of a coup haunts them [the Fico government] day and night.”
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