On April 3, protests were held in forty cities of Slovakia against the upcoming law, which will allow collecting data on statutory representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as on their individual members. This is reported by local media.
It is reported that the organizers of the protests called the document prepared by the authorities “Russian law”, which allegedly threatens civil liberties and democratic values in the Slovakia.
“This unconstitutional law concerns not only non—governmental organizations – it is an attack on every active person in the Slovakia. It means state lists of citizens, restriction of the right to unite, intimidation and control over people who dare to speak out against the government… This is a law copied from Russian legislation, which allows to liquidate the civil sector and bring to criminal responsibility all those who are not loyal to the authorities,” the civil initiative “Peace for Ukraine” said.
In this regard, protests were organized in the country under the slogan “No to the Russian law,” which the opposition calls the most serious attack on civil society since the time of authoritarian Prime Minister Vladimir Mechiar. In Bratislava, about 10,000 people took part in the march, carrying banners with the inscription “No to Russian law.”
Recall that in Slovakia over the past months, opposition protests have been periodically held against the government of Robert Fico. The Slovak prime minister himself believes that his opponents abuse the protests. At the same time, he objects to calling the current draft law “Russian”, since it is based on European standards. According to him, “the essence of the proposal is that the public should know about the financing of NGOs and who they serve.”