BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Large crowds again took to the streets across Slovakia on Friday to voice their opposition to populist Prime Minister Robert Fico and his pro-Russian policies.
The wave of protests is fueled by Fico’s recent trip to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare visit to the Kremlin by a European Union leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began more than three years ago and his recent remarks that Slovakia might consider leaving the 27-nation EU and NATO.
“Shame, Shame,” people at the Freedom Square in Bratislava chanted. The crowds rallied in over 40 towns and cities at home and abroad, organizers said. The protesters called Fico “a traitor.” “Slovakia is Europe,” they repeated.
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Fico, who survived an assassination attempt in May 2024, has faced calls to resign over his comments about future EU and NATO membership and his claim that Russia had security reasons to invade Ukraine.
The crowd condemned recent pro-Russian activities of Fico’s close associates.
They include remarks by Erik Kaliňák who said that Slovakia “would finally have a reliable neighbor,” if the Russian troops conquered Ukraine, Slovakia’s neighbour.
Kaliňák is the chief advisor of Fico’s government, a member of the European Parliament and Fico’s deputy in the leftist Smer (Direction) party.
Ľuboš Blaha, a prominent member of Fico’s party who is known for his extreme leftist rhetoric, met this week Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR spy agency, on one of his trips to Moscow, and said that it’s a fact that “the West is losing and Russia is winning.”
Fico’s views on Russia have sharply differed from the European mainstream. He returned to power last his party won a parliamentary election in 2023.
He has since ended Slovakia’s military aid for Ukraine, criticized EU sanctions on Russia and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO. He declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an enemy after Ukraine halted on Russian gas supplies to Slovakia and some other European customers.
