Thousands of people gathered in Bratislava on Sunday to protest government policies and mark the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which resulted in the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
Demonstrations have already taken place in recent months in Slovakia, with the opposition accusing the government in particular of trying to muzzle the press, of attacking artistic freedom, but also of mismanagement of public funds.
Waving Slovak and European flags and carrying banners reading “Slovakia does not belong to the government, but to its citizens”, thousands of people gathered in the center of Bratislava.
The defense of freedom
“The government is trying to suppress the freedoms that the 1989 generations fought for,” Boris Barina, a 19-year-old student, told AFP. “I have grandchildren and I want them to live in a free, democratic and above all just state,” said another protester, Anna Tothova, 58.
Anger has risen in recent days in the country after the indictment of a police officer for manslaughter following the fatal beating of a homeless man on November 5.
A minute of silence was observed in memory of the 48-year-old man, whom police beat after stopping him in a supermarket in Kosice, Slovakia’s second city, for allegedly stealing.
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