‘New reality’ hailed as Slovak protests against pro-Russia Fico widen to small towns
More than 100,000 people hit the streets Friday across Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe to defend the country’s Western orientation.
Unlike previous demonstrations, this week’s unrest also rocked smaller rural towns. | Tomas Benedikovic/AFP via Getty ImagesTom Nicholson | February 8, 2025 | 10:39 am CETA pro-Western protest movement in Slovakia that has been galvanized by the pro-Moscow trajectory of Prime Minister Robert Fico widened on Friday, with an estimated 110,000 people attending evening demonstrations in 41 towns in the country and another 13 cities across Europe.
Crowds were estimated at 42,000-45,000 in the capital of Bratislava, and at more than 20,000 in the eastern Slovak city of Košice, according to SafetyCrew, an event safety consultancy.
Unlike previous demonstrations, this week’s unrest also rocked smaller rural towns that until now have been bastions of support for the ruling leftist-populist Smer party.
Milo Janáč, 49, told POLITICO that he had been returning to his home town of Gelnica (pop. 6,202) by train two weeks ago from a protest in Bratislava when a newspaper interview caught his eye. In it, teacher Eva Wolfová explained that “it’s no big thing to have 50,000 people demonstrating in Bratislava and 15,000 in Košice. But the moment they get 300 people protesting in Gelnica, it’s all over [for the Fico government].”
Gelnica, an impoverished mining town settled in the 13th century by ethnic Germans from Bavaria, lies in the Slovak Ore Mountains . . .
https://www.politico.eu/article/slovak-protests-against-pro-russia-pm-widen-to-small-towns-organizer-hails-new-reality/
