Europe

Demonstrators on National Uprising Square in Slovakian capital Bratislava voiced their anger against the coalition government once again this week, following continuing demos since last year.

The focus of protests in 2023 was on the government and judiciary's perceived failure to fight corruption, the country's Russia-friendly foreign policy, and interference in freedom of the press.

This time, measures taken by the Ministry of Culture seem to have triggered renewed protests, with many demonstrators calling for Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova and others to be fired.

Last week, Simkovicova dismissed Matej Drlicka, the general director of Slovakia's National Theater, and Alexandra Kusa, the director of the country's National Gallery, having already fired other important cultural figures.

In early summer, on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture, the public television and radio broadcaster RTVS was dissolved and replaced by an institution called STVR (Slovak Television and Radio), on which the government will be able to exert much more direct political pressure than before.

These measures are part of Prime Minister Robert Fico's overhaul of state institutions. In the ruling coalition, his nominally social democratic Smer-SD shares power with the social democratic Hlas-SD and the right-wing nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) [...]