Slovaks protest amid PM Robert Fico’s coup warnings happymamay

Rob Cameron

Prague correspondent

EPA An evening protest in Bratislava, with several demonstrators with their backs to the camera giving a victory salute and one holding a rose. They face a much larger group of protesters behind barricades carrying banners and flags of Slovakia and UkraineEnvironmental Protection Agency

The protest appeared much larger than the last such demonstration two weeks ago

Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating across Slovakia against Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government, defying his warnings that agitators linked to the liberal opposition would exploit the protests to stage a coup.

Marches are being held in about 25 Slovak towns and cities, the latest in a series of protests against his populist nationalist coalition.

Protesters are angry at what they say is Fico’s undermining of the country’s institutions, culture and standing in the European Union and NATO, especially his increasing attacks on Ukraine and rapprochement with Moscow.

Fico says he pursues a “sovereign” Slovak foreign policy targeting “all four cardinal points of the compass.”

EPA Robert Fico, wearing a blue suit and blue tie, gestures with his left hand while holding a news conference on January 21. Slovak and European Union flags stand in the backgroundEnvironmental Protection Agency

Robert Fico accuses the opposition of planning a coup

He denies opposition claims that he wants to remove Slovakia from the European Union and NATO, saying that his country’s membership in the two institutions is not in doubt.

The Dennik N website estimated that about 100,000 people across Slovakia took part in the protests, including at least 40,000 in the capital alone.

About 10,000 people reportedly took to the streets of Banska Bystrica, a city with a population of 75,000.

On Thursday, 15,000 people demonstrated in the city of Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia, to avoid clashing with a separate event being held there this evening.

There were no reports of violence or unrest, contrary to Fico’s warnings this week that agitators would encourage demonstrators to attack public buildings, causing a police response that would lead to larger protests.

Earlier on Friday, Fico told reporters that police would soon begin deporting several foreign “trainers” who he claimed were in Slovakia to help the opposition try to overthrow his government.

On Wednesday, he called a meeting of the government’s Security Council, saying intelligence services had concrete evidence that a group of foreign agitators who took part in recent protests in Georgia and in 2014 in Ukraine were operating in Slovakia.

The Slovak domestic intelligence service, SIS, confirmed the allegations, but provided few details. The opposition does not have much confidence in the State Information Service, as it is run by the son of a member of parliament from Fico’s Samir party.

Fico said the “large-scale” cyberattack that hit the country’s health insurance company on Friday was a typical example of “how to eliminate an insubordinate government that has unconventional views on certain things” — a reference to his opposition to arming Ukraine and its efforts. To repair relations with Moscow.

He added that such activities are carried out by “representatives of the opposition, non-governmental organizations organized from abroad, foreign trainers and the media.”

Dennik N later reported that the incident was actually a phishing attempt, not a cyberattack, and not particularly widespread.

Slovak officials have claimed that a previous cyberattack on the country’s land registry may have come from Ukraine. Kyiv categorically denied these accusations.

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