Slovakia's peaceful anti-government protests grow nationwide

Late on Friday afternoon, people slowly gather at Freedom Square in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, to protest against the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The atmosphere is calm. People are streaming into the square from all directions, carrying banners and the flags of Slovakia, the EU and even NATO. Their message is clear: Slovakia belongs in Europe.

This isn't the first rally of its kind being held in Bratislava. The latest series of protests began on December 23, a day after the prime minister's surprise trip to Russia, and have been held at regular intervals ever since.

The protesters here agree on one thing: Slovakia does not belong to Russia. And many feel that Fico's pre-Christmas meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow was an act of treason.

Slovakia has been a member of NATO since 2002, and joined the EU in 2004.

The people taking part in the protests in over 20 cities across the country are peacefully demanding that Slovakia remains in these international organizations and that the government stop undermining Slovakia's international position.

Fighting for democracy — again

"I feel really disappointed by our government," says a 47-year-old protester named Richard who has tied an EU flag around his shoulders. "When I was 12 years old, I took to the streets with my father, protesting against communism in November 1989, and here I am, fighting for democracy, once again," he tells DW.

The crowd in the square is getting bigger by the minute. People of all ages have come and are joining in the chants of "Enough of Fico," "We are Europe," "Shame" and "Treason." Some are calling for Fico to step down as prime minister.

"I feel unhappy about what is happening in this country and the people who rule it, and I want to voice my opinion," says 26-year-old Alexandra. She says she was not put off by the prime minister's talk of increased danger and unrest the previous day. "I have feared for my safety ever since Fico won the election," she says.

Talk of an alleged coup

On Thursday, the day before demonstrations, President Peter Pellegrini convened a meeting of the state's Security Council, claiming he had been given serious information about a threat to the state's security.

"The establishment of our constitution is being threatened; there are groups of people who want to escalate tension within the country and attack the institutions of government," said Pellegrini, adding that these groups are being coordinated from abroad.

Fico made very similar claims, saying that some groups were allegedly planning a coup. "It is an attempt to organize a typical coup in Slovakia so that the government falls and those who cannot get into power through democratic parliamentary elections come to power," he said.

Coup claim roundly rejected by protesters

"It's very difficult to react to such delusions," said Lucia Stasselova, one of the organizers of the protest in Bratislava, ahead of Friday's protest. "Nothing of what the prime minister or the president are saying is true."

"It's what all of them say," added Marian Kulich, another of the protest's organizers. "Listen to Erdogan in Turkey, Orban in Hungary, Irakli Kobakhidze in Georgia, Serbia, they all use the same narrative. In my opinion, Slovakia is just one of the countries that are submitting to the Moscow regime — thanks to our prime minister," he told DW.

Both Stasselova and Kulich are members of the civic group Peace to Ukraine, which was set up shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It is now also campaigning in support of democracy in Slovakia.

"We started to organize the rallies in Bratislava, and slowly, other cities began to coordinate with us. More than 20 cities and towns are currently involved. The protests in each town are organized by different people," said Stasselova.

60,000 take part in Bratislava alone

Apart from a brief interruption due to a power outage on stage, the rally goes off smoothly and peacefully — without rioting, and certainly no attempted coup.

DW spoke with the organizers just a few hours before the protest, who said they were expecting around 30,000 to take part. Most media outlets have estimated that some 60,000 joined the protest in Bratislava — four times as many as took part in the last protest two weeks ago.

But demonstrations were not just restricted to the capital; the numbers taking part in other cities also increased. In Banska Bystrica, for example, attendance on Friday was up to 10,000 from 6,000 two weeks ago.

Indeed, several media outlets estimated that a total of 100,000 people took to the streets of Slovakia's cities in protest on Friday.

On Tuesday, Fico faced a no-confidence vote in the Slovak parliament. However, when the prime minister unexpectedly called for the session to be held in secret on the grounds that he would be sharing confidential information with the parliament, the opposition withdrew its no-confidence motion in protest.

It has said it will call a new no-confidence vote in the near future, and is now demanding another parliamentary session next week.

Speaking to the media after Tuesday's session, members of the opposition said Fico read a report from the intelligence agency SIS (Slovak Information Service), raising concerns about an uprising similar to the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2014 that resulted in the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.

A 'paranoid' prime minister

Opposition leader Michal Simecka, head of the Progressive Slovakia party, called the prime minister's speech "paranoid."

"I'm afraid that the prime minister is suffering from delusions," he said. "He sees things that don't exist. There's no other explanation I can think of. So, this is my takeaway from his speech."

Fico's critics have said there was no genuinely secret information in the report, and some claim the SIS is being instrumentalized for political purposes.

"The SIS is being abused. It serves a political purpose of this government, it spreads hatred and fear of the critics of the government," said lawmaker Maria Kolikova of the center-right liberal Freedom and Solidarity party.

Another protest is already planned for February 6. "The protest will continue as long as the people want to protest," said Stasselova of Peace for Ukraine. "It will depend on the actions of Fico's cabinet, their statements, their politics."

Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan